Convergent
by tris4eaton
Summary: Rated T to be safe. This is a Fourtris story. My take on the way Allegiant should have ended, and beyond.
1. Introduction

I have just finished reading Allegiant, and I am having a difficult time accepting the ending. It took me maybe a week and a half to read all four of Veronica Roth's books in the Divergent series, and I find myself still addicted. There was so much more that I wanted from it, that despite Veronica doing a wonderful job, I cannot accept it. I am not here to criticize Veronica's work, and I am not here because I think that I am a better writer. I am here because I have to give myself some closure and put into writing how I would have liked for Allegiant to end.

It's been a very long time since I have written. I have been a member of many different forums, written under many different names and been a member of many different fan clubs. Many have felt that when I do write, I don't write nearly enough because they are left wanting more. All I ask is that you bear with me. I am very very busy between work, college and life. I am very open to constructive criticism, so feel free to leave me your comments/thoughts/feelings/etc. I always love to receive feedback.

This story picks up after Tris's confrontation with David in the lab. Like the original story, it is written from both Tris's and Tobias's points of view. I hope you enjoy my take on the ending, as well as my furtherance of their story.

xoxo Tris4Eaton

**DISCLAIMER** I do not own Divergent or any of the characters. This story is not affiliated with any other story that shares its name. This story contains spoilers, so if you have not read all of the books, do not read this story.


	2. Chapter 1

TRIS

I've never spent this much time looking in a mirror. There was only one mirror in my Abnegation house, and I was only allowed to look at it for maybe a minute, and only a couple times a year. If I tried to look into it for too long, my mother would give me a strained smile and close it. After coming this far, though, it seems silly to worry about how much time is spent looking into a mirror: there's much worse to worry about. When I joined Dauntless, I never imagined that I would be where I am today. This is the first time that I've looked at myself in the mirror since that fateful day - the day that I walked into a wall of death serum. I shouldn't be alive. No one should be able to survive the death serum, Divergent or not. And as if that wasn't enough, no one should be able to survive the wounds that I suffered. But I did. I shouldn't be alive. But I am.

I slowly slid my arm out of its sling and examined the now-healing bullet wound in my shoulder. At the time, I didn't think it was that bad, but looking at it now, I know that I was delirious. They had told me that the bullet had gone through-and-through, but I thought that they were exaggerating when they'd said that before the hole was mended, my bone was showing. I closed my eyes as I relived the first bullet. I had been shot before, but it had never felt like that. I quickly opened my eyes and stared at the rest of my body. I stared into my own eyes for a few minutes. I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't be alive, but I am.

I slowly lifted my shirt to observe the wounds that were on my abdomen and torso. There was a large bandage covering my right side and I knew better than to remove it. That bandage was covering the hole that formed as a result of my body falling onto a large piece of glass - glass that was shattered from all of the gun shots. They told me that if I had fallen just slightly to the right, one inch to be exact, that the glass would have punctured my lung. I stared at the bandage for a long time, thinking about what would have happened if I had let Caleb go inside instead of me. Caleb betrayed me. Caleb betrayed our parents. Caleb was still my brother, the only family that I had left. I couldn't let him go in there just because he felt guilty. I've been in that position, and after some of the things that I've done, I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't be, but I am.

As I crossed the room to place the sling on my empty hospital bed, I thought about Tobias. I haven't seen him since that day. I know he's probably furious at me, thinking that I was just being reckless by going in there. He has to be furious, because he hasn't come to see me in here. Christina came almost every day, as did Zeke. Caleb came a few times, mainly trying to figure out why I had saved him. He stopped coming, though, after I told him to stop crying and to man up. I know I shouldn't be so hard on him, but sometimes I get tired of having to baby him. I'm sure that's how he felt when he had to look after me for all those years, though. I shouldn't be so hard on him, especially because he at least came to see me. My traitor-brother came to see me, but my boyfriend didn't. But that was about to change today.

I took a deep breath as I prepared to leave this room for good and be greeted by the man that I haven't seen in two months. I stopped in front of the door and ran my fingers through my hair. I've never really been too concerned with how I look when I see Tobias, because he's seen me at my absolute worst, but being that I haven't seen him for two months I feel like I need to look as decent as possible. I cautiously stepped outside the door, and as I approached the end of the hallway, I took a deep breath. I released it slowly as I rounded the corner, only to be let down when I saw Christina standing before me and not Tobias.

"Look at you!" she said with a large smile on her face.

"Hey," I said weakly, "I thought...you said..."

"I know," she said flatly. "He was going to. He came to me last night and asked if I would come get you because there was something that he had to do. He said he might meet us for dinner."

[I]Might[/I]. More often than not, when Tobias said might, it meant it wasn't going to happen. He hates me. I can't really blame him, though. After everything I've done, of course he would think that I went in there because I was being reckless. In fact, it's been two months since that day: he's probably already moved on. I shook the thought from my mind as Christina led me out to a truck.

"You know how to drive?" I asked her.

"I know how to drive, yes," she said. "But you'll want to wear the seat belt."

I felt like I was going to throw up throughout the entire drive. When we got to the fence, Christina blew past it like it hadn't previously signified the end of our world. I grimaced at the thought of going back to the city. I wasn't sure that I could stay on the other side after everything that happened, but I wasn't sure that I could stay in the city either. I had hoped to talk to Tobias about it, to see what he thought about it, but since he never came to see me I never got the chance. I didn't want to mention it to Christina. Her family is in the city and I know that she feels she has to be there to protect them. Even beyond her need to protect, though, lies the attachment that Dauntless initiation was supposed to break. It at least felt good to know that I wasn't the only one who hadn't become unattached.

We finally came to a stop just outside the compound. Being at Dauntless headquarters again felt so weird. Christina had mentioned on the way here how Evelyn took over the old Erudite building - Jeanine's office became her sanctuary. The factionless took over the rest of Erudite and she left Dauntless open for anyone who was "illogical enough to stay there." It's ironic how she feels that living in Dauntless is illogical while she inhabits the office of the woman that she fought to destroy.

Walking through the compound, I recognized many faces. None of them spoke. They all walked past me as if they had no idea who I was. As if I wasn't the one that saved all of them. As we walked past the chasm, memories flooded my mind, but the one that stood out the most was the precious moments that I spent with Tobias as we sat on the rocks and kissed. I doubt I will ever get to relive those memories. We joined Zeke and Shauna in the cafeteria. Uriah, Lynn and Will missing from the group made my stomach ache, but the other person that was missing made me want to disappear. Tobias was nowhere to be found. Christina sensed my discomfort and smiled at me weakly as she grabbed a roll off of the plate in front of her. Tobias hates me.


	3. Chapter 2

Tobias

When I arrived on the other side of the fence, a wave of relief crashed over me. The attack had been stopped. I knew I would have a long battle ahead of me still: Tris was sure to be a wreck after assisting with her brother's death. This is bound to be worse than the way she reacted to shooting Will. I was also unsure of how to explain to her what happened with Evelyn. I knew she didn't like or trust Evelyn, so telling her that all was well between us wasn't going to be easy. I was expecting there to be some kind of major celebration when I walked into the building, but instead a strange hush fell over the entire room when I walked in. I looked around and saw Cara sitting partially slumped against a wall. She looked up at me with pain in her eyes and an ache formed in the pit of my stomach. _What went wrong_? Before she could open her mouth, my eyes found Caleb sitting with his head in his hands. He looked back at me with fear in his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again as tears welled in his eyes.

"What is going on?" I demanded.

Cara stood and cautiously walked over to me. She stopped about a yard away from me, but then decided to close the gap. She placed her hand on my shoulder and took a long, deep breath.

"Tris went into the weapons lab instead of Caleb," she said.

I cut my eyes over to Caleb and he jumped up with fear. He stumbled towards the doorway with fear, trying to escape my gaze. Before he could even reach the door-handle, my hand was wrapped around his throat. I shoved him into the wall and looked him dead in the eyes, our faces so close that I could feel his stifled breaths.

"How could you let your sister go in there in your place, you sorry piece of -"

"Four, let him go," Cara said as she wrapped her hand around my wrist. "She's alive."

"I'm sorry," Caleb choked out before I dropped him onto the floor.

"How.."

"She survived the serum, Four. I don't know how, no one does. But she did," Cara explained.

"She made me," Caleb stuttered as he stood up slowly. "She made me give her the backpack. I couldn't stop her. She's not the same person she used to be, she's so different. I've never seen her like that," he rambled on.

"Shut up," I said coldly.

I shouldn't be so cruel to him. He watched his sister go to what was supposed to be her death. That shouldn't matter to him, though, since he had already tried to deliver her to her death in Erudite.

"Where is she?" I asked Cara. "That's the part I haven't been able to tell you yet," she responded, looking at the floor. "She's in the hospital. She survived the death serum, but when she got in the lab, David was there. He shot her, Four."

"But you said she's alive."

"She's in a coma. She was so unstable from being exposed to the serum, when David shot her, she fell onto large shards of glass. They had to perform a major surgery to remove all of the glass. They said that if she had fallen a different way, the glass would have done serious damage, including puncturing her lung. The incision from the surgery was so large that they decided to put her in a drug induced coma until it healed a little, so she wouldn't be in so much pain."

All of this information was too much for me to take. Everyone in the room stared at me as if I had suddenly grown a third eye, and it only took me a few seconds to figure out why: none of them had ever seen me cry. I stuffed my hands into my pockets and people slowly started to leave the room. Soon, the only two left with me were Cara and Christina. Until that moment, I hadn't even noticed that Christina was there and that she was almost in as much shock as I was. I could see the stains of dried tears on her face and I could see that she was trying to fight new ones that were forming in the corners of her eyes. Without saying a word, Cara turned and walked slowly away from us. When she realized we weren't following, she stopped. Christina and I casually walked behind her, and we realized that she was taking us to see Tris. It seemed like we walked down a million different hallways that all looked the same until we reached a separate part of the building that looked completely different from the rest. I could tell this was the building that they used as their hospital. All of the walls were white, as were the floors and all of the doors. Some rooms were sectioned off using white curtains, but others were enclosed by large white doors. Cara stopped in front of one of the large white doors. On the wall beside it were the letters ICU. I didn't know what they meant, but I knew it couldn't be good being that they were written in bold red paint.

"I'll let you two decide who goes in first." Cara said as she turned to walk away. "She won't be awake, of course, but you can still talk to her."

"You can go first," I said to Christina.

I didn't wait for a response, I just walked to the other side of the hallway where a chair had been placed in the corner and sat down. I wanted to see Tris, but I still needed a little more time to prepare myself. When I left her earlier, I never imagined that this would have happened. I wouldn't have guessed that she would have gone into that room in Caleb's place. I know she cares about her brother still, but he betrayed her and her parents. She always had to do something crazy, something reckless. I should have known that I couldn't trust her to just deliver Caleb.

I waited for what felt like forever for Christina to come out. When she finally emerged, she looked like she had seen a ghost. She walked by me without saying a word, and without even looking at me. My stomach burned with dread as I made my way towards the door. I stood there with my hand on the knob for what could have been as long as five minutes. I knew that I had to go in. I wanted to go in. I just didn't know how I would react. I pushed the door open slowly and inched my way in. There she was. She looked so small in that giant bed. Her hair had fallen in her eyes, her lips were as pale as her skin. There were bruises on her face and arms. I reached out and brushed the hair out of her eyes, but then I wished that I hadn't. There were large dark circles under her eyes that made her resemble a corpse. I pushed my hand to her chest to ensure that her heart was still beating. There was a slow thump against my palm, and her chest moved up and down slowly. In a way she almost looked peaceful, but I knew that if she'd been awake, she would have been miserable. Tears slid down my face as I looked at her fragile looking body. This wasn't the Tris that I knew. The Tris that I knew was strong and stubborn. Sure she was small, but she never let that stop her. I couldn't look at her this way. I pressed my lips to her forehead the way I had so many times before, and then I turned and walked to the door. I looked back at her one more time, and I knew that I could never look at her this way again.


	4. Chapter 3

Tris

I stared at the food on my plate, but I didn't really feel like eating. Instead I took the time to look around. I expected to see a room full of Dauntless, but much to my surprise, Dauntless members weren't the only ones in here. People from every faction were scattered throughout the room. Even some of the factionless were here. They all seemed to be at peace with each other. _What had happened while I was gone_? Before I had too long to dwell on that question, I saw her.

"What is she doing here?" I hissed at Christina.

"We brought her with us," she replied, eyeing her from afar. "Four thought she would make a good Dauntless."

Her last sentence made my stomach churn. Tobias thought that Nita would make a good Dauntless? Tobias wanted to bring her here? Rage slowly started to fill my body. I kept staring at her, long enough to notice the little tattoo that was on the underside of the base of her thumb: 4.

"Chris, I have a really bad headache," I groaned. "I think this was a bit too much for my first day."

"Oh, sorry," she said, "I didn't think about that. I'll take you to your place."

"My place?"

"Yeah. I knew you'd want to stay here, so when we all came back we all set aside an apartment for you."

"We?"

"Everyone knew you were gonna need a place to stay," she responded with a half-smile. "Come on, I'll show you."

I followed her through many familiar hallways. I don't know why she can't just tell me where to go, it's not like I don't know my way around. I started to get nervous. She was taking me in the direction of Tobias' old apartment. But she didn't know where he used to live, did she? Would everyone have been cruel enough to set aside his old apartment for me while he's off living with Nita? I wiped my palms on my pants as we got closer. My heart completely stopped when we stopped in front of what was once Tobias' door. Christina knocked cryptically, and after a few seconds the door opened. My heart began to beat faster and faster, racing as I looked up at him. Tobias. He had to be in on this sick joke. No one would have known where his apartment was if he hadn't told them.

"Well, my job's done," Christina sighed to herself.

"Thank you, Chris," Tobias flashed her a smile.

"It's Christina to you, Four," she flashed a fake smile back at him. "Have fun."

I watched her walk away and my stomach churned again. How could they be so cruel, after what I've done for all of them? I feel selfish thinking that, but I don't care. I almost died for all of them and all they can do is rub Tobias and Nita in my face? Tears started to form in my eyes, but I absolutely was not going to let him see that this was bothering me.

"Hi, Tris," he said softly.

It looked like there were tears in his eyes, but I couldn't tell if it just looked that way because of the tears in mine. He kept staring at me, but I didn't know if it was because he was waiting for a response, or if he was just staring to stare. He reached out and brushed the hair out of my eyes, cradling my cheek with his palm. He tried to force a smile, but it was broken by a single tear that fell from his eye. Before I realized what was happening, he had grabbed me and was holding me in his arms. I didn't know what to do, so I buried my face in his neck like I used to. He smelled exactly the same. His hands moved to my hips and he pressed his lips to mine. Tears began to fall from my eyes and I jerked away from him.

"Stop," I demanded coldly.

"What's wrong?" he said, "did I hurt you?"

"What's wrong?" I scoffed. "Don't act like I don't know."

"Tris," he said, searching for words. "I don't understand."

"I know about Nita," I said folding my arms over my chest. "I know you brought her here."

"What does Nita have to do with..." he started, "Oh."

"Yeah," I said flatly. "I may not have been here, but I'm not stupid, Tobias."

"Of course you're not stupid," he said looking puzzled. "But she has nothing to do with this."

"Of course she does, Tobias. She's the reason you didn't come to see me, she's the reason you didn't come today and this sick joke.."

"Tris, I did come to see you," he scowled. "You were in a coma. It was right after your surgeries. I don't care about Nita. I never have and I never will. I didn't come back to see you because I couldn't look at you like that. You looked so small and frail and that's not you. I couldn't look at you in that bed with all those tubes and..." he stopped short. "And today I was trying to get everything ready for when you came home. I wanted everything to be perfect. This isn't some sick joke, Tris. I love you."

Tears were now falling from his pleading eyes. I had never seen him look like this, and I never wanted to see him look like this again. I wrapped my arms around his waist and softly pressed my lips to his. He deepened the kiss and pulled me against him. I could feel his heart beating. He wrapped his arms around my hips and then slowly slid his hands down the back of my thighs. I pulled away, gasping for breath and he rested his forehead against mine.

"Come inside," he said after a few minutes. "I want you to see our apartment."

"Our?" I asked.

He nodded as he led me inside. He shut the door behind us and I looked around the room in front of me. It looked like Tobias' apartment, but something was different. There were flowers on the tables and black lace pillows on a black couch. I walked into the bedroom and noticed a rug on the floor that wasn't there before, and there were sheer black curtains covering the windows.

"I know you don't really like frilly stuff, so I didn't want to overdo it, but I wanted to make it a little cozier," he said from the doorway. "There's only one bed, so I can sleep on the couch or the floor if you want..."

"No," I cut him off. "I don't want that."

He walked over to me and pressed his lips to mine forcefully. He walked us over to the bed and laid me down slowly. He took his shirt off and hovered over me.

"Tobias," I said, pressing my finger to his lips.

"I'm sorry," he said sitting up quickly.

"No," I said grabbing his hand. "I'm just really tired."

He nodded and laid down beside me. I rested my head on his chest and he drew loose circles on my back with his fingers.

"I love you," I said looking up at him.

He kissed my forehead and said, "I love you, too," as I drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 4

**Before I start this chapter, I just want to thank those of you that have given me reviews. I really appreciate you guys giving me feedback and I super-duper appreciate the nice things you guys have said. I also want to thank everyone that has viewed this story. In four days I have received almost 900 views. That absolutely blows my mind. You guys are awesome. I also want all of you to know that I'm spoiling you right now by updating every day. Soon, I won't be able to do that. My goal is to update at least 4 times a week, though. But without further ado, here is the next chapter :)**

Tobias

I was standing on the rocks by the chasm where Tris and I had our first kiss. The roar of the water was loud in my ears, but above it I could just make out a voice. The voice was small and fairly high pitched; a sweet melody to my ears. As I turned in circles looking for the source, it grew louder and louder as if it was coming towards me. I then realized that the voice wasn't getting louder, the chasm waters were becoming quieter; they had become calm and almost completely still. The flow resembled that of a river. It was then that I could hear the voice clearly: "_Tobias_," it said. "_Tobias_." The rocks around me grew dimmer and the light reflecting off of the water became brighter and brighter, as if the sun was staring right at me. "_Tobias_," the voice said again. The voice was so familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the chasm vanished. Everything around me was dark. I heard the voice again, "_Tobias_."

I cautiously opened one eye just enough to see blonde hair draped over my shoulder. I closed it quickly but subtly, her voice saying my name sounded as sweet as her kiss tasted. I had never heard my name said in such a tone that I actually enjoyed hearing it, a tone that didn't make me want to run away but instead made me want more: more of her.

Finally, I opened my eyes and turned over to face her. Her hair reached her shoulders now, and it was shining in the sunlight, but nothing could shine brighter than the smile that was one her face.

"Good morning," she said as I brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear.

"Good morning," I smiled back at her.

She was using her elbow to prop up her head, with her other arm stretched across my arm, her hand on my chest. One of her legs was draped over mine.

"I need you to help me with something," she said quietly, almost shyly.

"What is it?" I asked.

She didn't answer, she just took my hand and led me into the bathroom. She pulled out a bag full of medical supplies from underneath the counter and she plopped it down with a sigh. She subconsciously ran her hand over the wound in her shoulder. She pulled out large pieces of gauze and surgical tape and then turned to look at me.

"I have to change the bandage. And I need to take a shower. But I need help getting this bandage off. And I'm not allowed to lift my arms above my head. So...I need help...with that, too," she rambled on.

"Do you want me to get Christina?" I asked her.

"No," she shook her head. "I don't want to bother her, plus I don't have time for that."

"Okay," I said slowly.

I was still confused on just what I was helping her do exactly, but I just went along with it. She hesitated for a minute, but then she pulled her shirt up, revealing her bandaged side, and her flat stomach. She looked at me while she tried to jerk her shirt up farther, but it went nowhere. I inched toward her and grabbed the hem of her shirt. She carefully slid one arm out and then the other, and then I pulled it over her head for her. Her skin turned a light shade of pink as she stood in front of me in her bra. I couldn't help but take the sight in. She was so beautiful, but I knew if I said it she'd just blow me off. I helped her peel all of the gauze that was taped to her skin off and I turned the shower on while she slid her running shorts off. She stood in front of me with her eyes focused on the ground.

"Can you.." she pointed towards the band of her bra.

I unhooked it slowly, but before I slid the straps down her arms, I kissed her neck softly. She was trembling.

"It's okay, Tris," I whispered. "I'm just helping you get better. It's not going to change anything. I don't expect anything. Do you want me to close my eyes?"

She shook her head no and then turned to face me, letting the straps slide off of her shoulders. I tried as hard as I could not to look at her because I didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but I wanted to look. I could look at her all day. I grabbed a towel for her as she finished and stepped in the shower. An outsider looking in would have seen this as something other than what it was. They would have looked at this as me taking advantage of the situation, or as something sexual, but it wasn't. All I did was help her. I barely looked at her as she stood before me, and after I helped her wash her hair, I wrapped her in a towel and I held her in my arms.

And even though I knew I shouldn't, I said it.

"You're so beautiful, Tris."

Her skin grew hot and I could tell that she had turned pink again. I pulled away and I re-bandaged her wound. It was hard for me to look at her body being that injured. Every time I got a glimpse of her shoulder or any other wound, it brought me back to her body lying in that bed looking like a corpse. I helped her get redressed and then we made our way to the cafeteria for breakfast.

We walked down there in silence, but I knew she was making a list of all of the questions that she had. Many of them I knew I wouldn't want to answer. But I knew when she asked them that I would have to tell her, because if I didn't she would just ask someone else. Someone else wouldn't sugarcoat it for her. Someone else would tell her how I was too much of a coward to reset one of my parents. Someone would tell her that I had let Evelyn back into my life.

**I know this chapter wasn't too exciting, but I promise it's leading to bigger and better things ;)**


	6. Chapter 5

**So sorry it's taken so long for me to get this posted. I've been trying to work on it between school and work but I've been super busy. The good thing about it taking so long is I finally have a better idea of where it's going, and I'm going to give you three updates this weekend! Please keep the reviews coming! :)**

Tris

As I walked to the cafeteria with Tobias, I stayed absolutely silent. I was absolutely mortified by what I had done. I should have had Chris help me instead of Tobias. There are so many questions that I need answered, so I just wanted to get done as soon as possible, that's why I let Tobias help. What if he doesn't want to be with me anymore? Did he think I was wanting something else? What if he didn't like what he saw? What if he thought I was being pushy? What if he didn't like what he saw? He hasn't touched me since he helped me get dressed. And he's been really quiet. Tobias staying quiet is never a good sign. The only times I've ever been scared of him have all been when he's dead-silent.

When we walked into the cafeteria, I saw Chris sitting at our usual table with Zeke, Shauna, Cara, Caleb, Peter, Nita and Amar. It's strange seeing Caleb sitting at a table in Dauntless, but what's even stranger is seeing people from every faction, and the factionless, sitting at tables in Dauntless. What is going on? Why is everybody still dressed in their faction attire? Why are they in Dauntless? Why are the factionless living amongst us? I look over at Tobias, ready to ask him all of these questions, but he doesn't look like _Tobias_. He's wearing the initiation-instructor-Four mask. Normally, I would enjoy looking at that face, his jaw tight and his eyebrows furrowed. It always reminds me of the first time I saw him. But right now, that's the face that worries me.

"Hey guys!" Chris says, pulling me down next to her.

"Hey," I said, smiling at her weakly.

Tobias sits down beside me, but doesn't greet anyone. He starts putting food on his plate and Christina gives me a wary glance. I shrug my shoulders slightly in response and turn my attention to the rest of the group. Caleb is sitting on the opposite side of the table, right across from me. He's been staring at me the whole time. A couple seats down from his is Peter. He's been ignoring my presence this whole time. Christina told me that he doesn't remember anything, that he'd had Tobias reset him, but I still couldn't let go of all that had happened. The way he ignores me makes me think that he remembers more than he's letting on. Beside Caleb and across from Tobias is Nita. She keeps glancing up at him when she thinks no one is looking. I'm looking. And at this angle I can see the tattoo she has of my boyfriend's nickname. I most definitely am looking.

"Tris," I hear Zeke say. "Come in, Tris."

"Sorry," I blush slightly.

"How does it feel to officially be a part of Dauntless again?" he asks.

"Well, honestly," I falter, "I'm a little confused."

"Dude, you haven't told her everything yet?" he says to Tobias.

"No," Tobias answers flatly.

Zeke opens his mouth to speak, I assume he was going to start explaining, but Tobias interrupted him.

"Time to go," he said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up.

"I haven't even eaten anything yet," I protest.

He grabs a muffin off the table as tosses it in my free hand.

"Breakfast is served," he says before pulling me out the door.

"To-Four," I recovered quickly as I noticed all of the people around us. "What the hell is wrong with you?" I glare, snatching away from him.

"I don't feel like sitting there while they act like everything is normal," he says, his eyebrows furrowing even more.

"Zeke was about to explain what is going on here, with the city - something that you haven't bothered to do," I hissed at him. "And then you just snatch me up and walk out. You haven't touched me since we left the apartment and the first time you do, you're snatching me out of the room."

"Beatrice, if you wanna sit there and act like everything is normal while Zeke gives you an exaggerated version of the truth, go right ahead," he snaps and starts storming away.

"Four!" I call after him.

He doesn't turn around. I can't believe he just called me _Beatrice_. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. I refuse to be that weak again. I decided to go back inside, but before I could even reach for the door handle, Christina comes through the doorway.

"What is going on, Tris?" she asks.

"I have no idea," I said, my voice faltering a little.

"C'mon," she says pulling my elbow.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to my place so we can talk about this."

When we get to her apartment, she unlocks the door and we go sit on the couch. I start to tell her everything that happened, and she just stares at me.

"You let him see you naked!?" she yells. "That's not very Abnegation of you."

"Well first, I am not Abnegation anymore. And second, is that really all you got out of this?" I sigh.

"Of course not," her eyes squint. "I definitely don't think that he hasn't been talking to you or touching you because he doesn't like what he saw or because he thought you were being pushy. Tris Prior, skinny Abnegation girl would never be the one to try to push someone into something like _that_."

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not," I laugh a little.

"Tris, I've seen the way he looks at you. When he looks at you, his eyes light up. Until I saw him look at you like that, I didn't know that his eyes _could_ light up. You have more of a body than you would like to realize, and I've watched him notice it. But even if there was the slightest chance that he didn't 'like what he saw,' he still loves you. There's no doubt about that."

"Thanks, Chris," I smile.

"I have an idea!" she declares.

"And that would be what?"

"Zeke is having a party tonight, and you're going."

"Chris, I don't think that's a good idea," I shake my head.

"It's a perfect idea," she nods. "We're gonna go shopping and get you something gorgeous to wear and we're gonna make it so that big bad Four can't possibly stay away from you."


	7. Chapter 6

Tobias

After wandering around for a while, I find myself on the rocks by the chasm. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did with Tris, but I need more time. If Zeke had told her about what was going on, it wouldn't all be the truth. But worse, some of it would be. She's not going to understand why I did what I did unless I explain it to her myself. Tris trusts me. I know that for sure after she let me help her this morning. I can't risk losing that trust just because I was a coward. I can't risk losing Tris just because I was a coward: she hates cowardice, I think more than anything else. I check the time and see that I've been down here for about two hours. I'm not concerned about missing work. We don't have the same rules or the same leadership anymore. I'm more concerned with Tris finding me here.

As I'm walking through the hallways, I hear a female voice calling my name, but it's not Tris.

"Four!" Nita calls, running up to me.

"What's up?" I ask casually.

"Is everything okay?" she asks. "You seemed distracted at breakfast."

"I was, but everything's fine," I sigh.

"Are you sure?" she steps closer and puts her hand on my arm. "Because we could go talk about it?"

"I'm fine, really," I say taking her hand off of me and walking away.

I wonder if Tris was right about her. I accused Tris of being jealous, but maybe she really did see something that I didn't.

"Yo, Four!" Zeke yells running up to me. "Are you coming tonight?"

"Am I coming where?"

"To the party!" he grins.

"I don't think so," I shake my head.

"Oh come on, dude. You need to unwind a little, relax. Come have some fun." he punches me in the arm.

"Yeah, alright," I sigh.

"Awesome!"

Zeke runs off, probably trying to convince more people to go to his party, and I just head back to the apartment. It's almost lunch time by now, so Tris shouldn't be there. I feel bad for avoiding her, but I just need more time. I slowly unlock the door and open it quietly. Just as I had hoped, Tris is nowhere to be found. I go to the bedroom and gather up some clothes. I'm just going to spend the rest of the day in the control room so I don't have to talk to anyone. As I'm finishing gathering up my stuff, there's a knock on the door. Great. I sigh and open the door, finding myself face to face with Caleb Prior.

"Can I help you?" I ask bitterly.

"I wanna talk to you," he states.

"About what?" I fold my arms.

"Beatrice."

"What about her?" I say, annoyed that he's dragging this out.

"I don't like the way you were treating her earlier," he folds his arms.

"Oh, you don't?" I start, "because I didn't like when you were assisting in her execution. Or when you allowed her to take your place in the Weapons Lab."

"Look, I know I've done a lot of wrong things. But we're not talking about me. We're talking about the way you were talking to and treating my little sister," he huffs.

"How many times do I need to say that she is not _your little_ anything?" I stare at him. "More often than not, Tris can take care of herself. And when there is a time that she can't, that's what I'm here for. From the moment she got here I've been looking out for her, taking care of her, protecting her. When there were people trying to throw her into the chasm, I was the one that saved her. I'm the one that used my access to the cameras in the control room to check up on her throughout the day. _You_ are the one who has actively participated in her almost being killed. I don't need a lecture on how _you_ think I should be talking to her or treating her. If she has a problem with something, she can tell me herself. Otherwise, there's no problem. And either way, it's none of your business, so stay out of it."

He turns and walks out without saying another word. I'm not sure how I feel about him. Every part of me wants to hate him for what he has put Tris through, but only part of me does. Every time I see him, part of me sees the ways that he looks like her. They have the same nose, the same eye shape. And when they're mad, their eyes get darker. And when she's mad, her nostrils flare just slightly, and her skin turns a pale red color. I love her. But I need more time. I can tell by the way that she looks at me that she has a long list of things that she has decided don't add up or that she finds to be suspicious. She's always been too curious for her own good. I just can't tell her about Evelyn yet. Now I know how she must have felt about telling me that she was working with Marcus.

When I finally make it to the control room, there's no one to be found. The feed from the remaining cameras that we have is on the monitors, but other than that the place looks dull and uneventful. I sit down at a computer and start casually going through some of the files. Before I always had to fear someone catching me, but now I can do and look at what I want. As I'm digging around, I come across a folder titled "Prior." I hesitated before clicking on it, and when I did click on it, I wished I hadn't.

Pictures of Tris's father, Andrew Prior, begin to fill the screen. There are Erudite-released articles about his work in Abnegation, his loyalty to Marcus, and his family. Photos of the entire Prior family appear. In most of them Tris is very young, but even then I can see how miserable she was. I remember seeing her a few times when I would peek out the window. I always saw Caleb first. He always had a book in his hand and he was never paying attention to where his sister was. She was always at least three yards behind him. He'd stop to help an older woman, or to feed a stray animal, and when Tris would catch up to him, she'd brush past him like he wasn't there.

I remember seeing her play with Susan and Robert. One time, she and Robert were making something out of some wet dirt and another kid came by and smashed it. Not very Abnegation like of the kid, now that I think about it. Robert looked completely defeated, but not Tris. She got up, walked calmly over to the kid, and shoved him down into an ant bed. I can still hear the way she used to laugh when she would race through the streets, watching the trains filled with Dauntless pass.

She doesn't know I remember any of this. It took me a little while. When I first saw her, when I pulled her out of the net, she looked familiar. I didn't know if it was just because all Abnegation dress almost exactly alike or if I knew her from somewhere. It didn't take me long to figure out, though. The look in her eyes when she challenged me the first day in the cafeteria was the same look she gave that kid when she shoved him down. Maybe one day I'll tell her. Maybe. Or maybe I'll let it be my little secret.


	8. Chapter 7

Tris

"Absolutely not!" I protested.

"Come on, Tris! It's not like anyone is gonna see it!" she pushed. "I mean, other than Four."

"Christina, there is no way I'm going to wear that," I folded my arms.

In her hands is a black lace bra and a pair of tiny matching underwear.

"Come on, Tris. I was kidding about that last part. These are just to make you _feel_ like a hottie. No one is going to see it, but you'll know it's there," she said.

"Fine," I agreed reluctantly.

When we left the lingerie shop, she headed straight for the trashiest clothing store she could possibly find. She started digging through piles of absurd pieces of clothing, if you can even call them clothing, and then smiled widely as she pulled out dozens of tops, bottoms and dresses. She made me try on _everything_ that she had picked up. All of the dresses were too short: my underwear were literally sticking out of the bottom. Most of the pants didn't fit right or were too long and almost all of the tops Chris deemed "too big." She finally settled on an outfit that she liked and she forced me to buy it. Although I was less than thrilled about her dressing me, I was at least relieved that it was over. So I thought, anyway. Just as I was trying to head back to the apartment, she pulled me into the cosmetics store.

"You're so pale," she sighed, looking at different bottles of strange looking liquid.

"What is that?" I asked, ignoring her comment.

"Foundation," she replied as if I'd asked her a stupid question. "It covers up your face."

"Oh well that's wonderful," I said sarcastically.

"I mean it covers up imperfections," she rolled her eyes.

She picked out a handful of different things, all of them were in strange little bottles or boxes, and then she forced me to go back to her apartment.

"Is this really necessary?" I asked as she smeared, she called it foundation, all over my face.

"Listen," she said pausing, "you're a pretty girl. But the way that you always look, Four is used to that. This, this will knock him off his feet."

"If you say so."

I sat in her bathroom for hours. She rubbed stuff all over my face. She pulled out some of my eyebrows. She rubbed more stuff on my face. By the time she was ready to start messing with my hair, she had put foundation, concealer, powder, blush and bronzer all over my face, she lined my eyes with thick black liquid that she called eyeliner, she put pink eye shadow on my eyelids, she curled my eyelashes with what looked like a torture device and smeared mascara all over them, along with the red lipstick that she forced me to wear.

"Bring me your hairbrush," she instructed.

"Don't do anything crazy," I said, sitting down again.

She brushed through all my hair and then started twisting it and pulling it.

"Ow!" I exclaimed as she tugged on a strand of my hair.

"I'm almost done," she assured me.

"What is this?" I asked, staring in the mirror when she was done.

"It's called a waterfall braid," she smiled proudly. "Time to dress you!"

She pulled my new clothes out of their bag and threw the bra and underwear at me. I stepped into the bathroom to put them on and then I stepped back into the bedroom cautiously. After I slid the super skinny black jeans on, she helped me get the top on. It had thick black straps and a sweetheart neckline. It contoured to my shape perfectly and had a corset-back. Chris tied the ribbons into a neat bow and then threw a pair of heels at me. I could tell that she was trying to ignore the massive bandage on my side, and the partially-healed hole in my arm.

"Chris, I can't walk in these," I said shaking my head.

"That's why we're going to practice."

She made me walk all around her apartment for at least an hour. She made me jump up and down, stand on one foot, and all kinds of other crazy things "so that I would be ready for anything," whatever that means. Then she took my fingernails and painted them black.

"Why are we doing all of this?" I sighed as she started putting her own make up on.

"I told you: we're going to make it so that Tobias can't resist you," she shrugged.

"Did you just say _Tobias_?"

"Yeah," she said, "I was trying it out. I've still been calling him Four even though we all know his real name, so I figured I'd try his real name. It doesn't feel right, though. Even if he is your boyfriend, calling him by anything other than his instructor name feels wrong."

"I still call him Four around everyone," I nodded. "But what I meant was why are we having a party and getting all made up when everything's still broken?"

"Because," she said. "Because no one knows what to do about it other than getting drunk and just letting it ride."

"That's the thing, though. I still have no idea what's going on. Why are the factionless here with everyone else? Why does everybody dress like they're still in their factions and why are they all in Dauntless? What happened to Evelyn and Marcus? Tobias hasn't told me anything about what's going on."

"Maybe that's why he's avoiding you," she said. "Maybe he doesn't want to or he doesn't know how."

"Why wouldn't he want to tell me? And why would it be hard for him to tell him?" I asked, more to myself than to Christina.

"Maybe he's more bother by everything that's happened than anyone realizes. Even you."

I looked at the floor. I can't believe I haven't thought of that. Tobias is strong and brave, but he's been through a lot. Even more than I know since I've been gone for a while. I don't know what happened to Evelyn and Marcus, but I haven't seen either one of them anywhere. I know he hates Marcus and he isn't that fond of Evelyn, but they're still his parents. Of course them disappearing, or whatever happened to them, bothers him. And then there's Nita. Something had to have happened there for her to have his nickname tattooed on her. Maybe they were together and he doesn't want me to find out. What happened with Peter? Tobias erased his memory, but when? Why? And what about Caleb? Tobias had to see Caleb probably every day while I was gone. He has to hate Caleb for letting me go into the lab.

"Chris, what is going on?" I shout.

"Tris, I would love to answer that question," she paused, "But I think only Four can give you the answers that you're really looking for."

**So technically Monday is not a part of the weekend, but I did start to write this on Sunday, so that was the third update that I promised. Please review, you guys! Please and thank you! **

**Xox tris4eaton xoX**


	9. Chapter 8

Tobias

Instead of going back to the apartment and risking running into Tris, after I left the control room I decided to just go straight to Zeke's apartment. I still can't figure out why there are files in Dauntless computers with information and photographs of the Prior family. I know Andrew Prior was an Abnegation leader, but that doesn't explain why they have all of this information in Dauntless. They even have Caleb and Tris's dates of birth; at least now I know when her birthday is. Were they investigating the Prior family because Caleb and Tris both transferred factions? Did they suspect them both of being Divergent? Is Caleb Divergent? Natalie was and Tris is, was Andrew secretly Divergent? That could be why he transferred to Abnegation from Erudite. Was there an entire Divergent family hidden amongst the Abnegation?

I shake these thoughts from my head as I arrive at Zeke's place. I can hear the music from outside and I hesitate before opening the door. Tris would never come to one of these parties, there's still too much Abnegation in here. She insists that she's Dauntless, but what she really is is Divergent and that's not going to change. I'm not sure why I'm afraid to go I to his apartment, but I am. Not afraid in the same way that I am afraid of the things in my fear landscape, but anxious. I just feel like something isn't right. I turn the handle anyway and step into the dimly lit room. I see Cara, Zeke, Shauna, Matthew, Amar, Peter, Caleb, and Nita. Something about seeing her suddenly makes me feel very uneasy. I grab a beer from the drinks table and head over to Zeke.

"Hey man, where's your lady?" He asks.

"Tris?" I ask.

"Well, yeah. Unless you have another lady," he jokes.

"Funny," I rolled my eyes. "Why did you think Tris would be here?"

"Christina said they were coming. I assumed they would be coming with you," he answered.

I took a long drink and sat down on the couch between Peter and Caleb. That wasn't my first choice, but it was the only one available: all the other seats were taken either by one of my friends or by someone I don't know. Everyone around us was talking and laughing, but the three of us just sat there completely quiet. I thought about starting up a conversation with Peter, but then I would probably have to explain to him where he is...again. Sometimes I wish I hadn't reset him. Sometimes I wish he was actually a somewhat intelligent person to start a conversation with. It was either him or Caleb, and while both have done awful things to Tris, at least peter isn't her blood relative. I was about to get up to find someone else to talk to, but just then Peter was told to move and Nita was taking his place.

"Hey Four," she says casually.

"Why have you been calling me Four?"

"That's your name here. I didn't think that had changed," she said.

"Right," I said, casually glancing around the room.

"So have you been to a lot of Dauntless parties?" she asks.

"Yeah, I have. Shouldn't you know what since you're from the outside?"

I immediately regret saying that. I've been trying to forget about the outside world.

"Are they all like this one?" She asks, ignoring my comment.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"So you always sit on a couch not talking to anyone?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Well why don't we change it up a little?" She asks suggestively, putting her hand on my leg.

"No, thank you," I say getting up and walking to the drink table.

"She's not here," Nita says following me.

"Doesn't matter," I glare at her. "I'm not interested, Nita."

"Then how do you explain what happened before Tris came back?"

"I.." I hesitate.

If I admit that my actions were a result of devastation, I admit to being a coward. But if I don't explain myself, Nita might take it the wrong way.

"I was drunk," I say, telling the half-truth.

"Any chance you're going to get drunk tonight?" She smiles, tryin to hand me another beer.

"Four! My main man!" Zeke interrupts.

"I'll see you later," Nita smiles and walks away.

"You looked like you needed some backup," Zeke slaps a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah," I sigh.

"What was that all about?" He asks.

"Remember what I told you about...the first night that we all came back here?"

"She thinks you're into her," he says.

"Or she thinks if she keeps pushing that I will be."

"Have you told Tris yet?"

"No," I frown.

"Dude, you better tell her. You know how she's always felt about Nita."

"I know, I know. I'm going to tell her," I say. "Just not yet."

"She's going to find out," he reasons. "It'll be better if it comes from you."

"I don't know if she'll understand."

"What's the worst that could happen? She breaks up with you. But what do you think will happen if she hears about it from someone else?" he crosses his arms.

"I guess you're right," I sigh.

"But let me give you a word of advice: don't pick Candor tonight," he warns.

Of course. Of course we're going to play Candor or Dauntless. Of course Tris is supposed to be here tonight. Of course he would ask me about it in front of her. Of course Nita's going to be here when we play. I better not get dared to do something that involves her. But then again, knowing Zeke, I probably will. There's no way I'm going to survive this.

"You look like you could use a drink," Cara says.

"Thanks," I say, taking the beer from her.

"Don't let them get to you. Everything with Tris will work out. She's crazy about you."

"Are you staying for the game?" I ask hopefully.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm interested in seeing what it is that you crazy people do when you're not working. Erudite, we're always studying. Even when we're working. But you people, there's no telling what it is you're doing from one moment to the next."

"I don't mean to bring up old wounds," I say cautiously, "but you remind me a lot of Will. He was always spitting out statistics and different facts about all of the factions. It always amazed me how he knew so much about all of the factions. I guess that's why."

"Thank you," she says quietly.

"For what?" I ask.

"For telling me a bit of what Will was like when he was here."


	10. Chapter 9

TRIS

I grab the door handle, but hesitate before opening the door. I can hear the music from outside. I don't know what to expect when I walk in. I've never been to a Dauntless party, but obviously Christina has by the way she slings the door open and struts inside. I try to walk in as confidently as she does, but I falter when I see how many people are here. Suddenly I feel like I'm separated from everyone by a long tunnel; I can see and hear them, but I can't get to them. It's worse than in my fear landscape. There, they were behind glass, but it still felt like they were within my reach. But here, I can't get to them at all. Through the tunnel I can see Chris weaving through people. I move forward, trying to follow her, when I bump into someone. Peter.

"Hey, Tris," he says.

He had that innocent look in his eyes, but I see through it. His smile is strained. Forced. Just beyond his eyes I see the black pits that stared at me as he tried to kill me. What if the serum didn't work on him? Peter's Divergent. He fought the serum. What is he planning to do?

My head is spinning. I see Christina on the other side of the room. There's a gap between people and I can see her talking to some people standing in the corner by a table with bottles of alcohol all over it. I see Zeke, Shauna and Cara huddled in one spot, Caleb and Christina, and then I see Nita. She's standing close enough to Tobias that if she moved at all, she'd be touching him. Tobias. What is Tobias doing here? Before his gaze met mine, I walked over to the table and grabbed a bottle, not even looking at what it was.

"Hi, I'm Zeke, the keeper of the party," he said extending his hand.  
"Zeke...really?" I asked, slightly annoyed.  
"Tris!?" He said with wide eyes.

I glance over and see Tobias staring a hole through me. Nita is doing the same, but she has hate in her eyes.

"You look hot, Tris!" Shauna laughs.  
"I knew it was you the whole time," Zeke says.  
"Oh yeah, you totally knew," Cara laughs loudly.  
"You look good, Tris," Tobias says, his eyes staring straight into mine.

My cheeks grow hot and I know my skin is turning red. I still remember the first time he said that to me. Seeing the bottle in his hand, I hope this time he didn't say it under the same circumstances.

"Let's dance, Tris!" Chris says pulling me away quickly.  
"I can't dance," I tell her as she pulls me to the center of the room.  
"Just do what I do," she says moving her hips side to side. "We're only dancing anyway to keep Four at a distance. We want it to get to him."

I copy her movements and soon I hear Zeke, Cara and Shauna cat-calling at us. Suddenly someone grabs my wrist and spins me around. Tobias. I open my mouth to speak, but he puts his index finger to my lips to silence me.

"You look beautiful, Tris," he says, his voice low and his eyes fixed on mine.  
"Don't say that too loud, wouldn't want your girlfriend to hear," I say sarcastically.  
"You're my girlfriend, Tris," he responds looking slightly confused.  
"I'm referring to the one that has your name tattooed on her hand," I roll my eyes.  
"Alright fine. Yes, Nita wants to date me. So what? Doesn't mean that I want to date her."  
"Oh yeah, right. It's not like you've been avoiding me all day," I say.

I feel my pulse quicken and I see that people are starting to stare at us.

"This isn't the time or place for this," I say quietly.  
"You're right, it's not. But I don't care," he says adamantly. "I love you, Tris. I haven't been abiding you because of Nita. I've been avoiding you because I know you have a thousand questions and there are some that I don't want to answer. There are some questions that don't have simple answers and I haven't had the time to be able to explain it to you, and there are some that I don't want to answer because I'm a coward, okay?"

His eyes are wide. He's sweating slightly. I can't remember the last time I saw him look this way.

"You're not a coward, Tobias," I say quietly. "You're the bravest person I know. Whatever it is, we can talk about it and get through it, okay?"  
"Okay," he nods slowly. "You really do look absolutely beautiful," he says after a while.  
"Thank you," I say as my skin turns red and I look at the floor.

He gives me a small, sweet kiss before we hear Zeke yelling something about a game. The room starts to clear out as many people leave. Before long, the only people left are Zeke and Shauna, Cara, Peter, and Caleb, Nita and Matthew, Christina, Tobias, and me. Zeke and Tobias pull the chairs into a circle along with the couch and we all sit down.

"Alright everyone," Zeke starts, "for those of you who are lame enough to have never played this game, it's called Candor or Dauntless. Someone will ask you to pick one. If you pick Candor, they will ask you a question and you have to answer truthfully. If you pick Dauntless, they will dare you to do something that is probably outrageous. If you want to be a pansycake and avoid answering your Candor question, you have to kiss the person that you find the most attractive in the room. If you want to avoid your Dauntless dare, you have to take off a piece of clothing. Hats, shoes, and socks do not count. Everyone got it?" He smiles an evil smile and we all nod. "I'll start. Four! Candor or Dauntless?"  
"Dauntless," he says casually.  
"I dare you to shoot a strawberry off of Tris's head."  
"I thought these were supposed to be crazy or something," he jokes.

Zeke gets a strawberry from the fridge and grabs one of his guns. After carefully balancing the strawberry on top of my head, he hands Tobias the gun. Tobias points the gun at me lazily, an for a split second my mind goes back to when he was under Jeanine's simulation and almost shot me. I can see a slight glimmer of fear in his eyes before he pulls the trivet and the strawberry flies across the room, completely split in half. Tobias then focuses on his next victim. After a little while, everyone in the room has gone except for me.

"Tris," Zeke smiles devilishly. "Candor or Dauntless?"  
"Dauntless," I say confidently.  
"I dare you to," he pauses for dramatic effect, "tell us your most intimate moment with our man Four."

I look around the room and see that everyone is waiting for my response. Tobias's face is bright red. I quickly untie the ribbons behind my back and I pull my top over my head. I struggled a little bit with the pain, and when I open my eyes, everyone is staring at me. At first I thought that they were staring because they never expected little Tris from Abnegation to be standing in front of them in only her bra. Then I think it's because of the bra that I'm wearing. But as I focus on all of them, I realize that they're not looking at my chest at all: they're staring at my wound. The bandage wouldn't fit underneath the top that I was wearing, so Christina and I had agreed that it would be okay to leave it off for just one night. I immediately began to regret that decision. My cheeks grew hot and I twisted the ends of my hair as I looked at the floor. I glanced up momentarily, and Zeke was holding up his bottle of beer.

"To Tris," he said.

His jaw was tight and it appeared as if his eyes were welling up.

"To Tris," everyone else echoed one by one.

I sat down quietly and the game resumed. By the time everyone was ready to call it a night, the majority of our group was at least partially wasted. It was 2am and we all got up, ready to head for the door when Zeke declared one last dare.

"Everyone's gotta do it," he slurred. "You can't leave until you kiss the person in the room that you're attracted to."

Christina furrowed her eyebrows and looked around the room. We all knew the only two people that she would have wanted to kiss, so no one commented when she pecked Caleb on the cheek and left the room. Caleb turned red and ran out immediately after. As I turned to kiss Tobias, I saw Cara and Matthew give each other a kiss on the cheek. As soon as Tobias and I broke apart, Nita pushed past me and gave Tobias a sloppy kiss. Before I could claw her eyes out, a hand was on my shoulder spinning me around. Peter gave me a hard kiss on the lips and then bolted. Nita brushed by Tobias seductively, taking advantage of the fact that I was frozen in place. Everyone stared at Tobias and I as we stared at each other in disbelief.


	11. Chapter 10

**Hello all! Just a few things before you read the next chapter. I would like to give a BIG thank you to LadyALover95 and Waitingfortheworld0603! You guys are awesome and the reason that I write! I love you guys! Everyone else, please keep the reviews coming! The more awesome reviews I get, the more I am inspired to write. :) I'm not into telling anything about myself other than vague statements about having to go to work or school in a public setting, but I would absolutely love to get to know my readers better! If any of you wanna talk or get to know more about me, feel free to message me anytime! Also, if any of you are in need of a place to store your works-in-progress, message me and I can help you out with that. I have my own private board that I keep my chapters locked away in and I would love to share my space with all of you! Each section is password protected so all of your stuff would be safe! :) Anyway, I'll let you all get back to the story.**

**xoxo Tris4Eaton**

Tobias

"I knew it!" Tris screams at me as she slams our apartment door shut.

I'm slightly tipsy after losing count of how many beers I had tonight, so the sudden loud noise echoes in my head. She's more volatile than she used to be. I partly blame myself for that. I'm the one that taught her how to be that way. But mostly I blame the war.

"There's nothing going on between me and Nita," I sigh. "I kissed you, didn't I? I can't help it if she's delusional."

"She didn't get that way by herself, Tobias," she glares.

"Peter kissed you," I point out. "Should I accuse you of having something going on with him?"

"I hate his guts! You know better than that," she says defensively.

"Well. okay then," I say sitting down on the couch. "Same goes here."

"Obviously you don't hate her if you brought her back here."

"I only brought her here because I thought she might be useful. If things got bad, she could help us because.." I stop short.

If I admit the real reason that I brought her here, I will sound like a monster. If I admit the real reason that I brought her here, I will sound like my parents. If I admit the real reason that I brought her here, it will be out in the open that I am just like them. And Tris will know it.

"Because what?" she huffs. "How would she be useful, Tobias?"

"Because she's expendable! Happy!?" I yell. "If things got bad, we could send her into the dangerous situations. I wouldn't have to risk losing you again. You wouldn't have to risk your life anymore. You wouldn't have to struggle with whether or not to send Caleb. She's expendable."

The look on her face is one I've never seen before. Her eyes are wide and her lips are slightly parted as if she's going to say something but no sound will come out. Her nose is flared just slightly and parts of her skin are flushed while other parts are burning hot.

"Tobias," is all she says.

"I don't want to talk about it," I say crossing my arms.

At that moment I feel like a Dauntless child who has just been denied a second piece of cake; throwing a mild tantrum, refusing to speak to their parents, as if it's going to change their mind. I know this won't change Tris's mind, but I have nothing else to work with.

"Thank you," she says timidly, sitting down beside me slowly.

I look over and see her glossy eyes staring into mine. She reaches out and touches her hand to my cheek. She pulls me closer and suddenly her lips are on mine.

"Tobias," she says when she breaks the kiss, her lips still touching mine.

"Hmm," I respond, enjoying the feeling of having her here with me when she was gone for so long.

"I need to know. I need to know what happened here while I was in the lab, and while I was in the hospital,"she says.

"Christina and I, we changed the plan a little," I sigh. "We knew that if stopping the reset was successful, Evelyn and Marcus would still be fighting. We knew the Evelyn would release the death serum and a lot of people would die. So we decided that I was going to reset one of them. Somehow I decided that it would be Evelyn. But when I went there, I couldn't do it. I don't know why. So I let her choose between the city and me. She chose me. We met with Marcus and Johanna, and they all came to the agreement to get rid of the factions. Evelyn was supposed to leave the city and Marcus was to have no part in the government. So then we all went back to the compound. We thought everything was okay. Matthew started teaching everyone what we wanted them to know. Amar was furious at first, but then the more evidence we gave him, he eventually saw the light. He started helping Matthew. Shortly after, we all decided to return to the city to see how things were going. Marcus had taken over the government, and Evelyn was hiding out in Erudite headquarters. Johanna and the other members of the Allegiant had been locked up. We had to remove Marcus from the city and establish a new way of life. People weren't adjusting to life without the factions very well. So we came up with a new system."

"Which is what?" she asks, her eyes wide.

"The factions are now more like job titles. People can live anywhere they want. and dress how they want, but the job that they chose defines what faction they're apart of. They go to that faction to work and then they return to wherever they choose to call home."

"So what happened to Evelyn?" she asks me, her eyes staring through me as if she already knows.

"She's here," I pause, "in Dauntless. She and I, we've been trying to bury the hatchet."

"Just like that? After all she did, you're just going to let it all go?" her voice raises.

"No, Tris," I sigh. "I'm not just letting it all go. But we're working on it."

"And what else have you been working on, Tobias? Nita?"

"There's nothing going on between me and Nita!" I yell. "The first night that we came back here, I was down in the pit. I don't know how many drinks I'd had, I lost count. I was thinking about you, how you were laying in that hospital bed. All of a sudden, Nita's sitting beside me. We started talking, but the more I talked, the more I missed and wanted you. And the more I drank. She tried to take advantage of that. She said that she would help me back to my apartment, but instead we ended up at hers. She tried to get me inside, but I said no. Then she tried to kiss me. I shoved her away. I don't want her, Tris. I never have. All I want is you. And even when I wasn't sure that I was ever going to get to have you again, the thought of being with anyone else made me sick. I love you so much, Tris. More than anything. You're the only person that I have ever felt I belonged with, that I've ever felt right with. I'm alive with you, Tris. You're the only reason I'm still living. You gave me something to live for. If it hadn't been for you, I don't know where I would be right now. You give me the strength to keep going. You are everything to me."

Tears are falling down her cheeks and she's biting her lip to keep herself quiet, the way I've seen her do so many times before. I take her into my arms and hold her there for what feels like hours. I run my hands through her hair and tangle my fingers into it as I kiss her. She wraps her arms around my neck and before I know what's happening, I'm carrying her to the bedroom. I lay her on the bed gently, my body hovering over her, her lips still on mine. She slides her hands to the hem of my shirt and slowly pulls it up and over my head. I pull hers off as well and throw it to the side, my eyes taking in her perfect body.

"Tobias," she sighs against my mouth.

"I know," I pause, "you don't want to go too fast."

"No," she shakes her head, biting her lip. "I'm ready."


	12. Chapter 11

**Hello lovely readers! This chapter is mainly a lot of fluffy fluff and really just a transition from the past to the present: Tris learning to accept her new way of life and reflecting on the old one. I wasn't too crazy about this chapter, but it's getting the story to where it needs to be. If you hate it, I'm so terribly sorry. If you love it, send me the love via a review. I love it when I get a new review; I'm like a kid on Christmas morning.**

**xoxo Tris4Eaton**

Tris

I wake to bright sunlight streaming over my face and through my hair. A cold shiver goes down my spine, the sheets slightly rough on my bare skin. Bare? I look to my left and see Tobias. His arm is draped over me and I can feel his legs entwined with mine. His face is buried in the pillow and his back is bare, the black ink of his tattoo looking lighter in the sunlight. On his side of the bed, the blanket is hanging partially off onto the floor, just covering his waist. My cheeks grow hot as I remember the events of last night. I feel him stir a little beside me and I quickly close my eyes again. He grunts a little as he sits up and I can feel his eyes on me. I feel his fingers brush my cheek slowly and he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. The bed sways as he gets up and I slightly open one eye. He pulls on a pair of pants and then walks into the kitchen. I jump up quickly and run I to the bathroom. After I get dressed, I run back into the bedroom, crashing into the bed just before he returns.

"Good morning," he smiles, a hint of shyness tugging at the corners.

"Good morning," I respond, biting my lip but returning the smile.

He sets down the glass of water that he has in his hands and lays down beside me, his head on top of mine. We lay there like that for a while, quiet, just taking in the warmth of each other's skin. His fingers start to caress my arm slowly, tracing little circles on my skin. He turns his head and kisses my forehead softly.

"I love you, Tris," he says quietly, his voice deep and thick with sleep.

"I love you, too," I respond as his lips brush mine.

"C'mere," he says pulling me up, "I have a surprise for you."

"Okay."

I get up and run my fingers through my hair as I follow him out of the bedroom. Walking I to the kitchen, I see plates of eggs, bacon and pancakes covering the counter.

"You brought breakfast?" I smile.

"Nope," he shakes his head. "I made breakfast."

"Since when can you cook?" A small laugh escapes my lips.

"I came from Abnegation, too," he reminds me. "Do you really think Marcus ever cooked a meal?"

"I guess not," I frown a little. "I guess it's just hard to see you anywhere but in Dauntless."

"I had aptitude for Abnegation," he says taking a large bite out of a piece of bacon.

"Yeah, but you never belonged there. You were always too curious."

"And how would you know that?" He puts the bacon down and stares me in the eyes.

"I remember you peeking out of the window, watching the world around you. Hiding in the curtains so no one would see you. Your eyes were as round as the moon and you always looked like you were dying to know what it was like on the outside," I say placing my hand over his. "Sure, you can be selfless, but you wee always dying to escape."

"How do you know that was me?" He challenges, his hands now resting on my waist.

"Because I remember you, Tobias Eaton."

"You didn't remember me until I told you who I was, therefore you have no proof that it was me."

"You were familiar," I say as his hands move to my hips. "I couldn't put my finger on it, no, but I knew there was something about you. You don't think I trusted you to throw knives at me just because of this handsome face, did you?"

"Well danggit," he grins, "that's exactly what I thought."

"So sorry to disappoint," I smile back.

"No," he says quietly, his eyes wandering over my body before looking straight into mine. "You've never been a disappointment."

"Oh please. You couldn't stand me when I first got here," I protest.

"That is not true."

"Yes it is. I was just the friend of the loud mouth Candor and the one who was constantly there to challenge you."

"Maybe that's what drew me to you," he winks.

My face turns a light shade of pink and I go back to eating my breakfast. I can see him watching me from the corner of my eye, but I ignore him. He finally changes his focus to his own plate and I allow my body to relax. Even though I'm completely comfortable around him, there are times when the things he says make my body tense. My thoughts begin to wander, and I wonder if he remembers watching me from his window.

"So," he begins, interrupting our silence, and my thoughts, "what job are you going to choose?"

"Huh?" I asked, slightly from confusion and slightly so that he'll explain that to me in greater detail.

"You get to choose a job now," he says. "I just chose to go back to the control room. I think it's good to keep an eye on things. Christina decided that she wanted to work in one of the clothing shops. What are you going to pick?"

"I don't know," I say.

"Well, you joined Dauntless, so chances are you'd want to pick from one of those jobs," he starts. "So you just have to decide what one you'd want to do."

"How do you decide that?"

"Well, for me it was easy. Not just this time, but the first time, too. I wanted to be able to keep an eye on what was going on. You know why. But I also wanted to kind of be left to myself. In the control room, I didn't have to work with many people," he explains. "Plus I always found the things we learned about computers at school interesting."

"So you based it off of what you like?" I ask.

"Well, yeah, kinda."

Well that is wonderful. I have no idea what I like. In Abnegation, we weren't really allowed to have hobbies or anything like that. Is was selfish. Since I've been in Dauntless, i was focused on making it through initiation, Tobias, and war. I did usually enjoy making dinner back home. It calmed me after a day of trying to make myself be more selfless.

"What do you like to do?" he asked.

"I don't really know," I sigh. "I liked making dinner in Abnegation."

"What else do you like?"

"I haven't really been able to think about what I like. Ever," I admit. "I've always just been focused on the task at hand."

"A lot of the Abnegation have had that same problem," he shakes his head. "Trying to pick a job based on their own interests didn't sit well with them. Most of them chose Abnegation jobs."

"I guess for now I'll just work in the Dauntless kitchen, and if I want to change it later, I will," I shrug.

"Whatever you wanna do," he kisses the top of my head.

We finish our meals in silence and then I collect our dishes and start to wash them. I finish rather quickly and I put them all away in their proper cabinets. The last time I did this, I was wearing all grey. I was in my house in Abnegation and Caleb was talking to me about how I should decide which faction to choose. That feels like so long ago. Before the redefinition of the factions. Before the war. Before Caleb betrayed me and our parents. Before I knew what it was to be afraid. Before I knew what a gift my life really was. All of it is gone now. All that remains is what we have left. It's hard to imagine that Edith Prior could have just forgotten all of her past and started a new, completely different life. But now, I must do the same.


	13. Chapter 12

**Well howdy there my wonderful readers! Hope the day is going well for you all. I would just like to give a quick shoutout to Divergent24-7: Thank you so much for that oh so lovely review. It totally made my day. To answer your question, yes I do update quite often. I try to update 4 times a week, but lately I've only made it to update about 3 times a week. And also a shoutout to T64t- thank you very much! Please keep the reviews coming my lovelies: new reviews are as exciting to me as finding money in a clean pair of pants that you put on...or maybe that just happens to me...**

Tobias

I always saw Dauntless as freedom. It was never just a decision that I made to get away from Marcus. In Dauntless, I was free to be myself. I didn't have to worry about making sure I was being selfless. I didn't have to always follow someone else's orders. If I wanted to eat cake for every meal, I could. I always saw Dauntless as freedom, until now. After everything that's happened, Dauntless feels as stifling as Abnegation. But honestly, it wouldn't matter what faction I'm in, or even if it were possible to be factionless. The entire city feels like a prison. For the majority of people, the faction that they work in is also where they live: having factions without having factions. The idea of "having factions but not having factions" is ridiculous. Being defined by what job we do is just as constricting as the old system was. Acting as if we have freedom doesn't mean that we actually do. All of the others, those that haven't been outside the fence, have no idea what true freedom is. They're all being deceived. It's a farce.

I watch Tris as she washes and puts away our dishes. I can picture her in Abnegation grey, the dress that she wore the day that I helped her out of the net. I can see the pieces of hair falling out of once-neat bun. It's hard to believe that was almost a year ago. She's been Dauntless for an entire year but never got to experience what it's really like. She even missed her own birthday while she was in the hospital, even though no one knew it. It's weird how one year can change someone so much. She's no longer that innocent little girl from Abnegation. She looks tired, dark circles faintly leave their mark under her eyes. Her eyes. The once clear, doe-like look that they had to them has been replaced by a certain coldness. Her features no longer have the soft look of a child. And her body. Despite the definition that Dauntless has given her, she's filled out. The hem of my shirt that she put on after her shower now tugs at her curved hips, and the top of the shirt clings to her filled out chest.

She probably doesn't even know that she's filled out like this. She always thinks of herself as unattractive, or that she looks like a child. It has always been far from the truth, but looking at her now, it's impossible for me to imagine that that's what she sees. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.

"Don't you need to get ready for work?" she asks once she's put away the dishes.

"No," I shake my head. "I took the day off."

"Tobias," she grunts. "You didn't need to take another day off."

"You just got here, Tris. I'm not in a hurry to go back to work. I've been without you for months. I want to spend some time with you, just the two of us, before we go back to our everyday lives," I smile, my hands now resting on her hips.

"Okay," she says reluctantly.

"Did you have fun last night?" I ask, smiling even wider as her cheeks turn bright red.

"Tobias!" she smacks my arm, her cheeks turning an even darker shade of red.

"I had fun last night," I say, my hands sliding up underneath her shirt, resting on her bare hip bones.

"Tobias Eaton!" She giggles a little, trying to wiggle away.

"Hey," I say quietly, pulling her back to me. "I missed you."

"I missed you, too," she says, her hands running up my chest and around my neck. "Tobias.."

"Hmm?" I hum as I play with her hair.

"What would you have done if I hadn't survived?"

I shake my head a few times, my silent refusal to answer that question. I have no idea what I would have done. When I came back and Cara told me that she went in Caleb's place, my world stopped. I can't even think about that.

"Don't ask me that," I finally say.

I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes and I try to blink them away, but they start to fall anyway.

"Tobias," she sings my name, using her fingers to brush away the stray tears on my cheeks. "It's okay, I'm right here."

My fingers grip tightly into the hem of her shirt and I pull her into my lap. Our lips meet as her shirt slowly slides up. The underwear she had hiding beneath it are now visible along with her flat stomach. She starts to wrap her legs around my waist so I pick her up and carry her into the bedroom. I lay her down in the bed and am about to join her when there is a knock at the door. I groan but turn to go answer it.

"Hello Christina."

"Hey," she hesitates, "you guys weren't at breakfast so I just wanted to make sure everything's okay. Especially after last night."

"Yeah, everything's fine," I tell her hoping that she'll accept this and leave.

"Okay, well I was hoping that Tris might wanna hang out later."

"I'll let her know," I say before closing the door.

"Who was that?" Tris asks when I make it back to the bedroom.

"Christina. She wants to hang out with you later," I answer, crawling into bed with her.

"Oh okay," she nods her head before my lips cut her off.

"But not until I'm done with you," I say against her mouth, pulling the tee shirt over her head.


	14. Chapter 13

**Hola, Bonjour, Hi my lovely darlings! I would like to thank those that reviewed oh so very much and I would like to ask for those reviews to keep coming. I also would like to apologize for any typing errors that may have been in previous chapters. I do a lot of my writing on my phone, and let's just say my** **phone doesn't always cooperate, nor does autocorrect. So I'm sorry to anyone that is a grammar freak for any errors. I try to fix as many as I can, but some still slip through. Anyway, keep those reviews coming folks! New reviews to me are like pumpkin spice to** **white girls ;)**

Tris

I wonder what Christina wants to talk to me about. I know that she's probably concerned with what happened at the party, and how Tobias and I reacted, but she seemed like it was slightly urgent. Maybe it's just to reminisce because it's getting close to what would be the next Choosing Day. That's when she and I met and started this whole adventure, so maybe she's feeling nostalgic. But that's not really like Christina. At all

I finally convinced Tobias to let me out of the house a few hours after Christina came by. I told him that if I was going to adjust to this new life and new system that I would need to do normal things and that included girl talk with Chris. As long as it didn't involve shopping with Chris. The closer I get to her apartment, the more I have the feeling that this isn't just going to be regular girl talk, though. As I approach the door, I can hear her sobbing inside

"Chris," I say lightly as I knock on the door

Before I can even take a step back from the door, she's swung it open and is standing in front of me with tears all down her face, black with make up

"Chris, what's wrong?" I ask as I wrap my arms around her, leading her to the couch.

"It's...it's.." She stutters. "It's Uriah."

"Chris," I sigh, having no idea what to say to her, "I know what you're going through is hard.

Hard? That's all I've got? She lost her first boyfriend because I shot him, and then the next person that she gets close to gets blown up in an explosion- one that was indirectly assisted by my boyfriend. What she's going through is plenty more than hard.

"We broke up," she manages to spit out.

"What do you mean you broke up?" I ask, now more confused than ever.

"I went to see him and he broke up with me," she wails.

"Christina," I start very slowly, "the last time I saw Uriah, he was in a hospital bed waiting to be taken off life support."

"The last you saw him," she mumbles.

"What does that mean?" I snap a little, but then calm down when I realize that she's my best friend and she's hurting, even if I don't understand it.

"He woke up, Tris. He wasn't supposed to. But one day he started breathing on his own, and then before we knew it he'd opened his eyes. Not long after that he spoke," she says, fresh tears pooling in her eyes. "And I don't know how it happened, but I've never felt so relieved in my life. I ran over to him and I just kissed him. He got that big Uriah smile and held my hand all night while we talked."

"Why didn't anyone tell me this?" I ask, almost yelling. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

"We haven't told anyone, other than the people that were there," she says. "He's still sick, still in the hospital."

"Yeah, but Chris, Uriah is part of the entire reason that I risked my life and almost had to give it," I say, my eyes wide. "I'm your best friend, and not only did you not tell me that Uriah's still alive, but you also failed to tell me that he's your boyfriend."

"Was my boyfriend," she says bursting into tears again.

I sigh and take her into my arms, letting her cry on my shoulder. I'm still mad at her, but now isn't the time for that. That, I have decided, I will save for Tobias when I get home. When I finally get her calmed down a little, I go into her kitchen and make her some tea. She thanks me when I hand it to her and looks at me as if she wants to ask something but is unsure if she should or not.

"Go ahead," I tell her, and she opens and then closes her mouth.

"I just," she halts, "I was just wondering, you know, when you and Four were in a rocky spot, when you weren't sure if you were going to stay together, how did you stay sane?"

"I'm not sure that I could have been considered sane," I joke, "but I did have a lot of other things to think about, bigger things that I needed to focus on. Avoiding him also worked wonders."

"Yeah, but you knew you still loved him."

"I knew that I loved him, but I wasn't sure that I could forgive him, or that I wanted to forgive him, or that I wanted to keep fighting in that aspect of my life, too. But Chris, I also had a choice. I knew that I could forgive him and move on and keep him in my life, or I could not forgive him and live without him. At first I needed some time and space to think about it, I tried to get away from him to see if I could live without him. That might be what Uriah is doing. I don't know what happened with you two, but I think it's best to give him some time and space. No doubt he'll realize that he needs you in his life."

She accepted this advice and finally calmed down. We spent the rest of the night eating cake and talking about what happened at Zeke's party.

"I can't believe Nita! I can't believe Peter!" She gasps, her mouth full of chocolate cake.

"I know!" I shriek, reliving the moment.

"Nita has some nerve to kiss him right in front of you. And Peter, who would have ever thought that he liked you?"

"I don't think he does, Chris. I know Tobias said he reset him, but I just feel like it didn't work."

"You think he's just hiding that he still remembers everything and that he's still his old self?" She asks.

"I don't know, I think it's possible."

"I'll find out," she grins devilishly. "Candor, remember?"


	15. Chapter 14

Hello everyone! I am very disappointed that I only received four new reviews, but I would still like to thank the four that did review, you guys are awesome. I was hoping that the rest of you guys would let me know how you feel about how I am bringing Uriah back. I have a lot of ideas for this story, but I don't want to be too generic or make this story just like all of the other ones. No offense to those of you who have written some of the other ones, I'm actually reading a lot of stories that have been posted by my followers, but the whole reason for me writing this is to be different than everyone else's. So please everyone, let me know what you want, how you you feel. Review or message me anytime!

Tobias

Letting Tris go is always so hard. I know she's going to come back to me, but she was in danger for so long, sometimes it's hard for me to recognize that she isn't in danger anymore. It is kind of nice, however, to have some time to myself. I absolutely don't mind spending time with Tris, but I haven't really taken any time for myself lately. I'm torn between going to see Evelyn and going to Zeke's. I finally decide to go to Zeke's so I can talk to him about some things.

I wander down the path and think of all that has happened, and everything that I know is going to come. I feel bad for not telling Tris about Choosing Day. I know that everything that I told her about overwhelmed her, but I feel like I maybe should have just told her all of it. Instead of taking the aptitude test, all of the 16 year olds will now sit through a short presentation that educates them about the different jobs that each faction has to offer. The next day is the choosing ceremony. Instead of letting your blood drip into a bowl, which was supposed to symbolize faction before blood, at least in my opinion, each person will drop a piece of paper with their name and job choice on it into the bowl. They will still have to go through Initiation, just not the same as it used to be. For those that choose a Dauntless job, they have to be trained just like the old initiates. No matter what. Dauntless job you pick, working in Dauntless means being ready to fight and protect at a moment's notice. Even though becoming Factionless isn't possible anymore, those who fail during Initiation have to pick a new job in a different faction. Anyone who didn't fail but still wishes to change their job has to wait until the next Choosing Ceremony to do so, no matter how long they've been working at their current job. In my opinion, the whole process is confusing.

I finally get to Zeke's door, but I hear yelling coming from inside. I knock hesitantly and after a moment, Zeke comes to the door.

"Man, I'm glad you are here," he says patting my shoulder as I walk in.

"What's going on?" I ask as he turns and walks towards his bedroom.

"Uri," he pauses while the screaming continues, "broke up with Christina."

"Why?" I ask, puzzled.

Christina and Uriah have been inseparable since he woke up from his coma.

"I don't know, dude," he shakes his head. "He hasn't even told her that he's out of the hospital."

"Dude, she's gonna flip," I say, trying to stay calm. "I bet that's why she had Tris come over today."

"Well, we'll get to the mystery of why he broke up with her later. Why did you come here to begin with?" he asks.

"Don't sound so happy to see me," I joke. "I actually came here to talk to you about what happened at the party last night."

"Oh man, that was crazy stuff. I can't believe Nita kissed you, dude! And Peter kissed Tris!"

"Yes, I know, Zeke. Thank you for reminding me," I glare.

"How did Tris react?"

"She thought I had something going on with Nita."

"Well, didn't you?" He asks.

I think back to when we were outside the city and I first met Nita. Of course I can see why Tris was cautious of her. To most people, Nita would be considered gorgeous. She turns a lot of heads here even. But not mine. Nita is arrogant. She knows people think she's beautiful and she tries to use that against everyone and to her advantage. She's manipulative. It irks me that even Zeke thinks we had a thing. She always followed me around. Sure, we talked a little, but that was it. She'd tried to kiss me a couple times, but I always refused her. The only time she even came close to succeeding was when I was drunk.

"No, man, I didn't," I say harshly.

"What are you going to do about Peter?" He asks trying to change the subject.

"Maybe he doesn't remember that she and I are together," I suggest.

I don't really believe that. However, that's the only thing that I can say other than vowing to destroy him. I've never liked Peter. But now that he's overstepped his boundaries in a completely new way, I want to end him. I remember when he attacked Tris during her initiation. She was unusually distraught - not that almost being thrown into the chasm by your enemies, and someone that you thought was a friend isn't traumatizing, but she seemed overly distressed by it. I remember her blurting out that Peter had touched her. Was that his way of trying to be with her because he knew she hated him? Is that why he helped save her life?

"Do you know if we have access to all of the old footage in the control room from before the war?" I ask him.

"We should. It was all backed up to an external drive," he responds.

"And what about since the war ended? Do we have any footage of the Compound or anywhere else?"

"I don't know, man. Why are you interested in all of this all of a sudden?"

"I just have a theory."


	16. Chapter 15

**Aloha my lovelies! First, I would like to apologize for how long it took me to post the last chapter. I've been crazy busy, but I shall attempt to post at least 3 times a week. I would like to give a huge, giant, major shoutout to Croke. You are awesome. Seriously, I love you. Your reviews mean so much to me. To be honest, I never really have a set plan for my stories. I develop the plot as I write it, and I feed off of my readers for inspiration and ideas. I will try very hard to make the chapters longer. By the end of this weekend I'll try for 2000 words or more instead of only 1000+. Also a shout out to T64t! Thank you for always taking the time to review and leave kind remarks. You're awesome. Anywho, I will let you get back to the story. Smooches!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Divergent. If I did, I wouldn't be working a job that barely pays above minimum wage...I'd be far away from here on the beach with a fruity drink. My name would also be Veronica Roth, which it isn't.**

**Just a word of warning, this chapter is a little graphic, possibly even disturbing for the faint of heart.**

Tris

The rest of the afternoon, Christina and I spent talking about things like shopping and make up. I really hated the topic, but it seemed to take her mind off of Uriah, and after all that she's done for me that's the least I could do. I took my time walking back to the apartment. It's not that I don't want to go and spend time with Tobias, I just feel like something's been different between us since I've been here. I feel like he's hiding something, but I don't know what it could be. The churning in my stomach tells me it's something big, but I don't have proof of that. I can't just walk in and accuse him of something that I have no proof of, especially after we promised to always be honest with each other. He would think that I don't trust him. But do I trust him? If I had to guess what it is that he's hiding, I'd say it involves Nita. There is something weird going on with the two of them, but I haven't been here long enough to figure it out. Whatever it was, or is, it has to be a secret between the two of them. Tobias would never let anyone else know because if he did, it would get back to me.

I slide my key into the lock on our apartment. I turn it leisurely and then stroll inside, locking it behind me. Sometimes I feel like hiding behind a locked door is like being imprisoned. In Abnegation, we never locked the doors. We never had to. Here in Dauntless, especially since the war, we have to. And while it feels like I'm being kept prisoner, I don't know that I could sleep any other way.

I walk through the compound slowly, enjoying the calm around me. There's no one walking in the halls around me and all is silent. As I approach the chasm, I can hear the roaring waters. Just as it comes into sight, someone grabs me. They place their hand over my mouth and try to shove me towards the chasm. I fight back, but they're too strong. As they push me to the edge, I see Al's body at the bottom. Hanging from the ledge by a rope is Will. My parents are hanging there, their fingers digging into the rock. Their nails are bloody and they scream in agony. I look to my right, and I see Marlene and Lynn both jump over the edge. The person turns me around, getting ready to throw me over the edge, and I see that it's Peter. He has that smug smile on his face. Just behind him, I see Nita run up to Tobias and kiss him. He doesn't pull away, doesn't fight her. He wraps his arms around her just as I fall over the edge.

I wake in a cold sweat, my breathing heavy. I look around me and I see nothing but darkness. I reach out beside me and I feel Tobias. I retract my hand before I wake him. I haven't had a nightmare since the war ended. I spent night after night in the hospital, and didn't have a single bad dream. I feel dazed as I search the darkness for the clock. The bright red letters read 3:27. I sigh quietly and lay my head back down on my pillow. I hesitantly close my eyes, silently hoping that I won't have another nightmare.

I open my eyes slowly. I'm staring at the ceiling. I look over and see Tobias laying beside me, still asleep. The clock reads 7:02. I sit up slowly and try to slide out of bed without disturbing Tobias. As I plant my feet on the ground, I hear a sound come from the bathroom. It's a strange sound, almost like that of water sloshing. I walk towards the door and peek around the corner cautiously. I don't see anyone, but I hear the noise again. I inch into the room and stop in my tracks. There is blood pooled outside of the bathtub, and in it lies my mother's body, her wrists torn open, the blade still in her hand. All of the water is red with blood and it sways as if someone was stirring it with their finger. I shriek in terror, and feel a rope being wrapped around my neck. It tightens and I see Peter in the mirror tugging it and tying it in a knot. He pulls me and ties the rope around the shower curtain rod and I hang there, my body limp, my mind screaming but my voice silent. The light starts to fade from the room, and just before it does, I see Tobias laying in the bathroom floor, a dagger sticking out from his back.

"Tris! Tris! TRIS!" Tobias is screaming.

My eyes shoot open and I sit straight up. I realize I haven't been breathing and I take a deep breath in and let it out, before I begin to hyperventilate.

"Tris, what's wrong?" Tobias asks, trying to get my attention.

"You...and I...and they...and Peter," I stumble, my words choppy and nearly inaudible.

"It's okay," he's says, rubbing my shoulder, "I'm here, Tris."

I throw myself into his arms and close my eyes tightly. I concentrate on the beat of his heart, the steady rhythm that has always been there to soothe me. His breathing slowly starts to steady mine, and loose tears flood from my eyes as quickly and fierce as the waves of the chasm. He runs his fingers through my hair and shushes me softly. When he feels that I have finally calmed down, he tilts my chin up and looks into my eyes.

"My dear Tris," he pauses, "what is the matter?"

"I just had some nightmares," I answer quietly, my eyes quickly shooting from his to the floor.

"Hey, it's okay," he says directing my eyes back to his. "What happened?"

"It's hard to explain," I lie.

It's not hard to explain. Explaining what happened is really easy. I killed them. What's hard is saying it out loud. What's hard is living with myself. What's hard is knowing that I'm still alive, even though I shouldn't be, and they're not, even though they should be/ None of them deserved to die. But me? I did deserve it.

"Tris, were these nightmares anything like the ones you used to have?" he asks softly.

I nod my head slowly, unsure of whether or not I want to answer him truthfully.

"Beatrice Prior," he says rather seriously, "I command you to stop blaming yourself for everything that happened. It wasn't your fault. None of it was your fault. The people that are to blame, they paid for what they did. They paid dearly. And you, my dear, have had more than your fair share of suffering and misery."

I open my mouth to speak, but he interrupts me.

"I love you, Tris. And I know it's hard for you. But it's hard for me, too. It's hard to watch you be in so much pain. It's hard to know that if some of those people didn't die, you would have. That is what haunts me."

"Tobias," I say just above a whisper. "You're not going to lose me."

"I can't lose you," he whispers, his voice hardly audible. "I'm sorry, Tris, but I don't care what happens as long as you're safe."

He leans in and presses his lips to mine slowly. I inhale sharply and he pulls me closer to him, his arms snaking around my waist. He pulls away for a quick breath before his lips crash into mine again. He holds me so tight I can feel his heart pounding in his chest, the blood pulsing through his veins. He's warm.

We pull away after a while and catch our breath, our foreheads resting against each other, his eyes staring into mine.

"Tobias."

"Hmm?" He hums, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Don't ever call me Beatrice again," I smirk.

"Deal," he laughs.

"I have to go," I say quietly, instantly regretting it. "I have to check on Christina."

"Yeah," he nods slowly. "I should probably do a little work today."

"So I'll see you at lunch?" I ask hopefully.

"I'll see you at lunch," he smiles before pulling some pants and a shirt on.

He leaves to go to work and I get ready to go see Christina. I'm sure she didn't sleep well. I leisurely walk to her apartment, trying to think of things to say to her. When Tobias and I were on the verge of breaking up, I can't honestly say that either one of us really wanted to. With Chris and Uriah, it's obvious that she didn't want to, but Uriah must have. How do you cope with knowing that someone that you care about no longer cares about you?

I knock lightly on her door and I hear her mumble something before she opens it. There are dark rings under her eyes, and they're bloodshot. Her cheeks are puffy and her hair is matted.

"Did you hear about the party at Zeke's tonight?" She sniffles.

"No," I shake my head.

"Of course he's going to be there. I don't want to see him. I do want to see him, but he doesn't want to see me. And look at me. Look at me, Tris! I look awful!"

Fresh tears begin to fall from her eyes and she turns to wipe them away.

"Christina," I say firmly. "You are going to go to that party tonight and you are going to look so amazing that Uriah is going to be absolutely blown away and unable to control himself. You are going to make him regret what he's done, but you're going to show him that you are just fine without him."

"How?" She chokes out.

"I am going to help you."

"How?" She repeats.

"Now I am offended," I joke. "I did learn from the best, didn't I? You're gonna knock him dead, girl."

I take her into the bathroom and I pull out one of the goopy masks that she's used on me before and I spread it onto her face. As we wait for it to harden, I grab two bottles of water and some nail polish. I paint her fingernails, wash the mask off, and then paint her toenails. I rub some other goopy stuff onto her face like she always does to mine and she laughs a little bit.

"Who would have guessed that Tris Prior, former Abnegation Stiff, would be in Dauntless focusing on vanity and partying?"

"Who would have guessed that a Candor Smartmouth would mKe it through initiation with Four as her instructor and still be a Candor Smartmouth?" I tease.

"I guess it's in my blood," she laughs a little, before breaking into full on hysteria.

I shake my head at her and wipe the other goopy stuff off, preparing myself to make Chris look as amazing as she makes me look.

**I would just like to mention that there is some foreshadowing in this chapter, so pay close attention. ;) Please review everyone!**


	17. Chapter 16

Tobias

Being alone in the control room is one of the things that I love the most in Dauntless. I can be completely alone, yet I can know exactly what's going on in every part of the compound. I glance around at each on of the monitors. Nothing is going on that interests me. Then I see her. She's wandering through the pathways, strolling leisurely close to the walls. She stops by the chasm and leans against the railing, her hair draping over her shoulder. I remember the first time I ever saw her standing like that. We had just come back into the city from outside the fence. I was giving her a tour of Dauntless and we came to the chasm. Her eyes widened at the sight. She had seen it a few times before on the cameras, but she had never seen its true beauty in person. She gravitated to the ledge like a magnet was pulling her closer. She leaned over the railing, letting the spray of the waves dance across her face. Her hair fell over her shoulder and I saw her in a completely different way for the first time. Of course she had her issues, everyone does, but in that moment she seemed flawless. She was smiling in a way that I had a feeling she had never smiled before, and she was glowing.

"How's Tris?" She had asked me.

"I'm not really sure," I said. "They're not sure that she'll make it."

"I'm sorry, Tobias," she said walking closer to me. "You know I'm always here for you. She wouldn't want you to be alone."

She came even closer and rested her hands on my forearms. She leaned in and before I knew it, she kissed me hard on the mouth.

"What are you doing?" Zeke startles me.

"Oh, I'm just, ya know," I clear my throat, "monitoring."

"Are you looking for someone in particular?" He glances at the screen.

"No," I respond casually, "not really."

"That's interesting," he nods his head, "because you're positioned right outside of Nita's apartment."

"Oh, is that her place?" I ask, trying to sound innocent.

I don't even remember bringing up that camera.

"Look," he grimaces, "I don't wanna be all in your business, but you might want to be careful. Tris is back now, man. If there's something that you're not telling her, she will find out. Especially with 'Christina the Candor' as her best friend."

"I'm not hiding anything."

"And I'm not gonna question that, my brother. But I think behind the scenes, there's a little more to the story," he pats me on the back. "Are you coming to the party tonight?"

"Yeah, I'll be there," I nod my head.

"That's what's up!" He cheers. "But just so you know, so will she."

"Which one?" I call as he quickly shuts the door behind him.

I sigh and look back to the monitor. Just as I am about to close out of that camera angle, movement catches my eye. Nita walks to her door and slides her key into the lock, but she doesn't turn it to unlock the door. Out of the shadows, a figure approaches her. They have a short conversation, and then the person turns to leave. As he turns around, I get a clear view of Peter's face. Was he just walking by and stopped for a minute for a casual conversation or was this a staged meeting?

I close out of the cameras, but I'm going to be keeping an eye on those two. I find myself going through the various files again, and before I realize it, I have opened the Prior folder. I bypass all of the family photographs that I've poured through again and again, and this time I focus on Natalie's file. Unlike every other member of the city, there is no birth date listed for Natalie. There is no record of her until she entered school, which was when she was almost 16. The only other records in the file are which faction she chose at her choosing ceremony and her Abnegation wedding certificate to Andrew. Her aptitude test results are not filed. Whoever compiled this file, they had to know Natalie's secret. Her file is the only one with missing information. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing who created this file, or when it was created. All of the file properties have been deleted. I scribble down a list of all of the missing information before moving on to another folder: Beatrice Prior. All of her information is there, including her manually entered result of Abnegation. I begin clicking through the photos.

Most of the ones that I click on first are group photos that were taken at the school. All of the Abnegation kids in the picture are in the back, trying to hide behind everyone else. Tris is on the end. In this photo, it looks like she's maybe 11 or 12, but she's so small. All of the other kids are so much bigger than her. Then I find some that are just of her and they're candid. She's in Abnegation. Why are these photos on a Dauntless computer and who in Abnegation would have been taking photos? Photographs are selfish and vain, so Abnegation people don't have cameras.

The farther I dig into the file, the more photos I find. There are some of all of the initiates in her class, but then there are some of just her. Most of them are candid and of her just walking around in Dauntless. Then there are some of the two of us. Tris and I have never taken a photograph together, yet here are dozens of them. They're all candid, and most of them were taken during our moments alone together. Someone's been watching us. Someone's been watching her since she was born.

I take a deep breath, trying to process all of this new information. All of this makes my stomach ace the way that it did when I was first learning of Erudite's plans before the war. I turn my attention back to the cameras. As I look at all of the different monitors, something catches my eyes. Standing in front of the door to my and Tris's apartment is a familiar figure. She flips her hair and knocks on the door quickly. She has on tight black pants and a tight black tank top, showing off her new tattoos. In my opinion, Nita is trying a little too hard to be Dauntless. Especially now that the factions aren't what they used to be. She tries to casually look around to make sure no one is watching her, and then she knocks again. Tris must still be at Christina's. I think that's probably a good thing. She looks down the hallway and then quickly walks the opposite way.

A figure comes into the frame, but they have their face hidden from the camera. This person knows the location of this camera's location, if not all of the locations of the cameras. And although I can't see their face, I know exactly who it is. Their walk and stature is unlike any other.

**Sorry this one wasn't as long as the last one. I've been really busy, but I wanted to give you guys an update anyway. It probably would have taken me until this weekend to have an update that's twice as long as this one ready. Tell me what you guys think: review, review, review! Muah! xox Tris4Eaton**


	18. Chapter 17

**Hey there my fabulous readers! So, as you all know, the last chapter was shorter than the 2000+ that I promised I would start doing. That is partially because I wanted to get an update up for you, and partially because I wanted to leave you with a cliffie. :o I'm evil, I know. X) Anyway, this is a continuation of the last chapter. It is also in Tobias's point of view, since it's a continuation, even though I usually do alternating points of view. Enjoy! :)**

Tobias

She walked into my apartment and sat down on the couch. It felt so weird for her to be here since I've never had a girl in my apartment like this, except for Tris. But Tris had always been different. She looked around the room as I closed the door, trying to determine if there was any trace of Tris, I assumed.

"Nice place," she said politely, but smiled in a way that suggested she'd be seeing a lot more of it.

"Thanks," I said as I sat down on the opposite end of the couch.

"Tobias," she laughed flirtatiously, "you don't have to sit all the way over there."

"I just wanted," I hesitated, "to give you some space. Ya know, everyone's got their own little space bubble."

"I think you're scared," she said boldly, sliding closer to me. "But you don't have to be scared. No one will know. No one will tell. It will be our little secret. I know you've been dying to, Tobias. Dying to explore the people around you, find out what it's like to be with someone else, someone more like you."

She leaned over and kissed me hard on the mouth. She ran her hands up and down my chest and, with her mouth, begged me to open mine. I tensed underneath her touch and I slid out from under her.

"I'm sorry," I shook my head. "This doesn't feel right."

"Once you realize that you're happier without her, it won't bother you a bit," she said, heading out the door.

I really hope she isn't the one that Zeke was referring to. I don't want her to be at this party. I close out of everything on the monitors and make my way towards the door. I wish I hadn't told Tris that I'd meet her at lunch. I really just want to be alone. But I head down to the cafeteria anyway. When I get there, I see her sitting with Zeke and Shauna. I sit down beside her and place a small kiss on her temple.

"So, what's for lunch?" I ask to no one in particular.

"Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans," Tris says as she takes a big bite.

"I think the best part of Dauntless is the food," I joke as I load up my plate.

"I think you're right," she says, "definitely way better than in Abnegation."

"Did you even eat in Abnegation?" Shauna teases.

"Sometimes it didn't taste like it," Tris says, joining in.

"Abnegation food isn't bad," a voice behind me says. "It's especially better than no food at all."

Evelyn. Tris looks her up and down slowly, and the look on her face says that she's less than happy to see her.

"Hello, Prior," Evelyn says, her voice monotone.

"I'm surprised you even remember the food in Abnegation," Tris says quickly, "since you abandoned it so long ago."

The tone in her voice when she says "abandoned" cuts through me a little. I know she doesn't care when Evelyn left Abnegation, or that she abandoned our faction. She meant that as a stab at Evelyn for leaving me. Not that I can blame her: if she had been abandoned by her mother or father and left in a household of abuse and torment, I wouldn't be warm and friendly at all. That person wouldn't be breathing.

I look at Tris very closely. The fire in her eyes and the flare of her nose is exactly the same as the first time she ever challenged me. It was during a conversation just like this one, about Abnegation food. When she didn't back down, I could barely even think of what to say. She looked so determined and unshaken by me, just like she looks unshaken by Evelyn. Evelyn stares at her for a moment, and then sits down on the other side of me.

"She's still here, Tobias," she says to me quietly.

"Yeah, she is," I say matter-of-factly.

"You need to get rid of her," she sighs. "There are so many other girls out there for you. I know of one right now that would love to be with you."

"Oh?" I question incredulously. "And who might that be?"

"Nita," she whispers her name. "She didn't want me to tell you."

"Why does it matter? It's not like it's some big secret."

"She told me about everything that's happened between you two," she smirks. "I bet little miss Prior over there has no idea, does she?"

"That depends," I hiss. "Are you asking if she knows the truth or are you asking if she knows Nita's version of the truth?"

"They're one in the same, darling," she grins widely. "I know all about it. If you're smart, Tobias, you'll make Prior a thing of the past."

My attention is drawn away from my mother by someone shouting at the opposite of the room. But when I focus on the people at my table again, I realize that it wasn't someone across the room that was screaming, it was Zeke.

"Dude," he throws a napkin at me, "you're so out of it."

"Yeah, I know," I admit.

When I look to my right, Evelyn is gone. When I look to my left, Tris is staring at me with the look of death.

"Your mother," she hisses, "has a lot of nerve to come sit at this table."

"I know," I say again. "But Tris..."

"Yeah, Tobias, I know. I'm supposed to try to like her. But I don't. I don't like how she treated you and I don't like that she thinks I'm just some temporary person in your life that doesn't care about you. I don't like being put in the same category as her. But I have to go. I have to get back to Christina's."

"Okay," I say as she gets up and kisses me on the cheek.

"I'll see you tonight?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'll see you tonight," I respond, giving her a quick kiss.

**Alright so this one wasn't super long either, but I am going to try, I repeat TRY, to give you guys 4 more chapters this weekend. Because I love you. Review pleaaassseee :)**


	19. Chapter 18

**Okay guys, just a few quick things before you read this chapter: this is another continuation chapter. This will be the last part of it, so it is also in Tobias's point of view. I broke it up so that you guys would get more updates plus I like cliffies x3 To my confused reader, yes, the conversation with Evelyn was real, but the whole point of Zeke telling Tobias that he's out of it is to show how sucked into his mother that he is. His conversation with her was kept quiet, so no one at the table even realized it was happening. Tris's reaction to Evelyn stems only from the short greeting she got from her. Tobias was so involved in the conversation with his mother that he didn't realize Zeke was speaking to him. After Zeke says that he's out of it, he replies "I know." This shows that he's conscious of how much he's letting his mother get to him, and also that he acknowledges the battle going on inside himself. I won't say too much more about that battle because that is going to unfold more in the story. I hope that clears it up for you and any other reader that was confused. Now, off to the story and the reviews ;)**

Tobias

As I walk back to the control room, Evelyn's words echo in my head. _If you're smart, Tobias, you'll make Prior a thing of the past._ I know she doesn't like Tris because of everything that happened during the war, but I don't know what makes her like Nita so much. I'm not really sure how she knows her to begin with. They were introduced when Nita was brought into the city, but I can't recall any other time that they have interacted. Of course, I'm not around them every minute of every day, but if they were becoming friendly I would have found out about it at some point. When we were outside the fence, Nita said that she had come from a different experiment, one that didn't have factions. Had she been watching the factionless on the monitors? If she had, she'd know all about Evelyn. Did she seek her out to get to me? How did she get so close to Peter? Has Evelyn made an alliance with Peter, too? Nita was working to overthrow the Bureau, Peter was working with Dauntless and Erudite to overthrow Abnegation, and Evelyn was working to overthrow the faction system and everyone in it. Was this the thread that tied them together? Were they also tied together by their hatred of Tris? After all, she is the one that interfered in all of their plans and stopped them.

I sit down at my desk and decide to finish out my day by actually doing work. Before I know it, it's time to leave. As I'm about to head out the door, Zeke runs up to me.

"Hey man, you ready for tonight?"  
"Yeah, I guess," I shrug.

I can't say that I'm ever thrilled to go to a party. There are always too many people there and it's always so noisy. I'd rather stay in my apartment and sleep.

"Don't worry about layers. No Candor or Dauntless tonight."  
"Who are you and what have you done with Zeke?" I joke.

It's not like Zeke to not make us play Candor or Dauntless.

"I promised Shauna that everyone wouldn't stay too late. Ya know," he winks and nudges me in the side.  
"More than I wanted to know," I shake my head as I walk out the door.

I go to grab some dinner before the party since I don't want to drink on an empty stomach. Zeke never has anything but alcohol at his parties. I really hope Tris is still with Christina. Everything's been so weird lately and I can't get Evelyn's words out of my head. After I finish my food, I decide to get it over with: I head to Zeke's.

When I open the door, there is already a room full of people. I see Zeke, Shauna and Uriah in one corner, and on the opposite side of the room I see Christina. She looks fairly normal for once. She doesn't have an overabundance of makeup on and her clothes look more comfortable and practical. Tris must have given her a make over. Before I can even wonder where Tris is, I see her come out of the kitchen with a drink in her hand. She looks like she usually does after spending time with Christina, but for some reason there's something that looks different about her. She doesn't stand out to me like she usually does.

A few feet away, I see Nita talking with a couple of people. Her long hair is swept up into a straight ponytail, makings her features stand out more. She has on clothing that hugs her body and shows her curves. When I look back over to Christina and Tris, my eyes are met with a cold, hard stare. Her nose is slightly flared and her skin has turned a light shade of pink. She was watching me.

I walk over casually and decide that I better just try to play it off.

"Hey I've been looking for you," I say as I wrap my arm around her.  
"I saw you looking at her," she says coldly.  
"I was just looking around," I reply calmly.  
"That's not what it looked like to me," she replies sharply.  
"That may be true," I pause, "but what I said is also true."

She scoffs. I grab a drink and take a long sip. She and Christina wander off, conversing with different people and dancing a little. I go to get another drink and suddenly Nita is right beside me.

"I thought I saw you here tonight," she grins widely.  
"Yeah," I grunt.

I'm still not sure about what's going on with her and Evelyn, or her and Peter.

"So I was thinking," she leans closer to me, "maybe we could get dinner together sometime."  
"No, thanks," I say, turning away from her.  
"No one would have to know," she says looking in Tris's direction.  
"I think plenty of people would know," I scoff.  
"Well then maybe you shouldn't worry about what other people think."  
"Well maybe," I begin, but pause when I remember where I am.

I glance around the room and see Tris staring at us.

"This really isn't the time, okay?" I move away from her.  
"We'll talk later," she smiles and walks away.

Tris avoids me for the rest of the night. The hours pass by quickly, and before I know it, the party is over. I've had more drinks than I could dare to count, but I grab one more to take with me. After I say my goodbyes to everyone, I see Tris storming out the door. I follow her. We wander the compound in silence. She's several feet ahead of me and I stumble after her, spilling a little bit of my drink as I run into a wall. She gets to our apartment first, but it takes her a moment to find her key. She's just opening the door as I approach her, and when I make it to the doorway, she walks in and slams the door in my face.


	20. Chapter 19

Tris

He's drunk. Completely wasted. I saw him looking at Nita like she's a piece of Dauntless cake. I don't even want to be in the same room with him. I may not have to be since it's taking him an extremely long time to unlock the door. I'm surprised he even managed to walk here without falling into the chasm. I've seen him drink before. I remember during initiation when I told him he shouldn't drink by the chasm. He seemed really relaxed. He definitely had his guard down. But I've never seen him like _this_.

I go into the bathroom to change out of these uncomfortable clothes that Christina made me wear and to wash all of this crap off of my face. She went a little overboard this time. I didn't want to say anything because I just wanted to keep her mind off of Uriah, but I don't even look like myself. By the time Tobias gets into the apartment, I've taken a complete shower and sitting on the bed with my arms folded.

He stumbles inside, almost knocking over the lamp that he bought so that I would be able to see if I had to get up in the middle of the night. He reeks of alcohol and his eyes are bloodshot. I don't like seeing him like this.

"What is wrong with you?" I say, my voice cracking slightly.

"Me?" he stumbles over the two letters like they're fifty. "You're the one that's no fun."

I cringe listening to his slurring words.

"Oh, I'm no fun because I don't want to drink more alcohol than a fish drinks water? Or is it because I don't look at other men like they're pieces of steak?" I scream.

This seems to spark his interest. His eyes open wider and his face becomes harder. He wears the Instructor-Four mask but this time it's not an expression that he put on to guard his real emotions. This time, it's purely out of anger.

"So what if I want to have some drinks?" he yells. "What, I can't have fun and unwind a little bit? It's not like I haven't been stuck here for days because you came back."

"Well, I'm terribly sorry that I got out of the hospital and interfered with your life and your new girlfriend."

"Stop talking about her! You don't know anything about her. You judge her so easily without even knowing the truth! What if she is my new girlfriend?"

His words are slurring but I have no trouble making out what he's saying. There's nothing that could stop the knife that just went through my chest.

"Well, Tobias Eaton," I say his name slowly, "if you want to push me away like Marcus, your father, did to Evelyn, your mother, then go ahead."

He hates people referring to Marcus and Evelyn as his father and mother. Even though he's trying to mend his relationship with his mom, he thinks that a mother is someone who takes care of you and is apart of your family, not someone that shows up one day because they gave birth to you. His eyes darken and his brows furrow. The look on his face is similar to the one that he wore the night that Al, Drew and Peter attacked me. Heat radiates from his body and I see every muscle in his body tighten. He comes closer to me, so close that I can almost feel him breathing. Suddenly, he swings his fist. His forceful blow knocks a hole in the wall that's merely centimeters away from my face.

I duck around him and run to the front door. I don't worry about him catching me. I've always been faster than him. And tonight, I'm sure that even an Amity could outrun him. I slam the door behind me and continue running through the winding paths. I don't stop running until I'm at the chasm and out of breath. Hot tears stream down my face. I hadn't even noticed they were there. My entire body feels numb in a way that I've never felt before. I've been through so much, felt so many emotions, been through so much pain, but I have never felt an ache in my chest like this one.

When I've finally caught my breath and can feel my limbs again, I walk slowly to Christina's. I take my time getting there. I have to mentally prepare myself to lie to a Candor's face and get away with it. I don't want her to know that there's anything wrong. If I tell her what happened, she will instantly hate Tobias again. Right now, I hate him. At least, I want to. But I don't need anyone else telling me why I need to. I know exactly why I need to. I know why I want to. I also know why I can't. Tobias is the only family that I have left. He has been by my side through everything. Even when we had our problems, neither one of us wanted to give up. Tobias is my strength. Tobias is my bravery. Tobias is my selflessness. Tobias is all that I have.

I finally make it to her door. I knock lightly and I hear cursing on the other side of the door.

"Oh, hey Tris!" she laughs as she opens the door. "Sorry, I almost died on my way to the door."

"Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah," she laughs again. "I tripped over my shoes."

She holds them up beside her head and crosses her eyes. It's a good thing that she's drunk because if she wasn't she would notice my red eyes and puffy cheeks.

"Come in, come in!" she yells cheerfully. "So, what do you want to do?"

"I was thinking go to sleep, actually," I try to smile. "I'm really tired."

"Don't be such a stiff," she giggles.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I roll my eyes.

I walk past her and lay down on the couch. I close my eyes tightly and try to forget everything that's happened. But when I close my eyes, all I see are Tobias's.


	21. Chapter 20

**thanks everyone for all the updates! You guys are awesome and crazy and I love you. To the one that asked about how to know when I update: if you have an account you can follow the story and get alerts when i update. If you don't have an account, email me at tris_4_eaton and I'll email you every time I update.**

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Tobias

I wake in a cold sweat. My head throbs. The light is blinding. I look all around me but Tris is nowhere to be found. I do discover, however, that I'm hanging halfway off the couch. I sit up quickly, trying to recall the events of last night. The pain in my head makes me lay back down quickly. The last thing I remember is watching Tris dancing with Christina. She looked so good out there, her hips swaying to the music. She didn't look like herself, though. At first, I didn't recognize her. Christina did way too much to her. But watching her dance, she was just as beautiful as ever. I remember Nita trying to get me to go out with her. I really wish that she would stop talking to me in front of Tris.

I sit up, slowly this time, using my fists to push up my weight. Suddenly there's an intense pain in my right hand. I look down and find my knuckles swollen, covered in black, blue, and purple bruises. Some of them have deep slices through them and they are stained with dried blood. Who did I get into a fight with? I don't remember fighting anyone. I stumble into the bathroom and stare in the mirror. There aren't any bruises or cuts on my face, or anywhere else on my body, so I know that it couldn't have been a fight. I may be a good fighter, but I've never been in a fight without having a few cuts and bruises. So what happened last night?

My head is still pounding, so I walk slowly into the kitchen to get some water. Before I make it there, though, I notice a huge hole in the living room wall. The longer that I look at it, I notice that it's about the size of my fist. So I punched a hole through our wall? Why would I do that?

After drinking a glass of water, I go take a long, hot shower. The water burns the broken skin on my knuckles. I lose myself in the warm waterfall that's cascading around me. It reminds me of the chasm and all of the memories that I have there. Tris. Our first "date." Our first kiss. Where is she? She's never gone this early. I'm brought back to reality by an incessant pounding on the front door.

I reluctantly turn the water off and dry myself off. I put on some pants and slide my shirt over my head as I answer the door. Zeke is standing in front of me with a massive smile on his face.

"Dude, what's up!?"

"Please stop yelling," I wince as my head throbs.

"Don't worry, you may be feeling it today, but you were a lot of fun last night," he grins.

"What happened last night?" I ask a little too quickly.

"What's the urgency? You act like you woke up in bed with a strange girl," he teases. "You didn't...wake up in bed with a strange girl, did you?"

"No!" I say defensively. "But I didn't wake up with Tris, either. I woke up on the couch, she was nowhere to be found and my knuckles are split open and bruised."

"Well I congratulate you on that one," Zeke shakes his head.

"What are you talking about? I.."

"Peter deserved to have the crap beat out of him, the way he was all over Tris last night," he crosses his arms.

"He was WHAT!?" I yell louder than I meant to.

"Wait, you didn't know?" His eyes widen. "Then who did you beat up?"

"My living room wall. There's a hole right through it. The only problem is I don't remember what happened last night. And now you're telling me Peter was all over Tris?"

"You don't remember anything?" He asks.

"All I remember is seeing Tris dancing with Christina and Nita talking to me."

"Well, you might want to sit down then," Zeke pats me on the shoulder.

We both walk over to the couch and he sighs as he gets ready to explain.

"So, I'm assuming you remember the first time that Nita was talking to you. Well, before Tris stormed out the door, Nita was talking to you again and Peter came up to her and was trying to dance with her. He kept grabbing her and trying to get close to her."

"What was Nita talkin to me about?"

"I don't know, I couldn't hear her," he shakes his head, "but she looked like she was trying to get you to go home with her. She was rubbing on your arm and trying to push herself up against you. I don't think Tris saw that part because of Peter, so you might actually want to thank him."

"Have you seen Tris today?" I ask him.

"Nope. She wasn't at breakfast this morning. Since you weren't either, I figured she was with you."

"Was Peter at breakfast?" I ask.

What if he got to her?

"No, he wasn't. Neither was Nita."

"I'm worried about her," I jump up.

The sudden movement makes me dizzy and my head throbs even harder.

"You need to calm down," Zeke says steadying me. "You're of no use to anyone if you're dead."

"How much did I drink last night?" I sigh.

"I lost count after five," he says.

"I've got to find Tris. I have to make sure she's okay. It's not like her to just disappear."

That was a lie. She did that all the time. She did it during initiation. She did it more times than I cared for during the war. And she's done it again. But it's different this time. There's no serum that she needs Caleb to research. There's nothing that she needs to risk her life for. This time she disappeared from [i]our[/i] apartment and to my knowledge, no one has seen her.

"I'll help you find her," Zeke agrees. "Maybe she's at Caleb's?"

"Good idea," I say heading towards the door.

"Dude," Zeke laughs.

"What?" I ask hastily.

"You might want to put some shoes on."

I quickly pull my shoes on and drag Zeke out the door. I walk to Caleb's as quickly as Zeke will let me. All of the noise in the compound is killing my head, though. We finally make it to Caleb's and I pound on the door persistently. When he finally opens the door, his eyes are wide and he looks frazzled.

"Can I help you?" He asks.

"Is Tris here?" I ask quickly.

"No, she's not," he says, his voice making him sound confused. "Why would she be here?"

"You're her brother," I say. "The first time she went missing she was with you, so I figured she might be this time, too."

"What do you mean missing?"

"I woke up this morning and she was gone."

"She wasn't at breakfast either," Zeke chimes in.

"My little sister is missing?" He asks, directing the question more at himself than us. "We have to find her!"

He slams the door behind him as he runs down the pathway. I really doń know where he's going or how he thinks he's going to find her. He doesn't know where she used to hang out here or who she used to hang out with. He doesn't know anything about her life during the short time that she was in Dauntless. He barely even knows her anymore. But I guess I shouldn't be too hard on him since he wants to help find her. Even though he tried to kill her.


	22. Chapter 21

I'm very sorry that this took so long to get posted my lovelies. I have been insanely busy and I also haven't been feeling very well. Anyway, I love you guys for all of your reviews. Because I made you wait so long and y'all gave fabulous reviews, the next chapter will be 2000+ words. Please keep the reviews coming...they're like cookies on Christmas morning! Muahh.

Tris

My eyes flutter open slowly. I stare up at the ceiling, listening to Christina fight with the bottles in her medicine cabinet. I replay the events from last night, and I prepare a convincing story to tell Christina about why I'm here. I'm about half way through when I see her brown eyes peering into mine.

"Why are you here?" She asks, eyeing me carefully.

"You don't remember?" I ask, trying to play it cool.

"Remember what?" Her eyes narrow.

"I came here after the party last night because we were going to have girls night," I respond having to think quickly.

I make sure that I don't pick at my nails or chew my lip while I wait for her response. I can feel my palms getting sweaty, but I concentrate on not wiping them on my pants. Lying to a Candor is hard enough. But lying to Christina, it's pretty much impossible.

"I don't remember having a girl's night," she raises one eyebrow.

"Yeah, we decided that we'd have girl's day instead because we were so tired and then we went to bed," I nod my head assuringly.

If I pull this off, it will only be because she is still hungover. She eyes me suspiciously as she pops some pills into her mouth and swallows them with a glass of water. She thinks it over for a minute while she carefully studies me, searching my body language old for any of my tells.

"So, what're we going to do today?" She asks, finally.

"Well, I was thinking we could go shopping," I say.

"Did Tris Prior just suggest that we go shopping?" Her eyes narrow. "Why are you suggesting we go shopping?"

"Because I think it's time for a change, Chris. I want to go to some of the shops in the other factions."

"Like where, Abnegation?" She snorts.

"No," I glare at her for a moment. "I was thinking Amity."

"Why in the world would you want to shop in Amity?"

"Like I said, I think it's time for a change. I want to break away from wearing nothing but Dauntless black. They had some really cute dresses there. I saw some," I pause, "when we were there."

"Okay, then," she sighs. "I guess we're going to Amity."

After getting ready, we both snuck out of the compound and made our way to the tracks. I wanted to make sure we didn't run into anyone that we know, especially Tobias. We jumped into the train and sat in the back, our bodies slumped against the walls. Christina has her hands over her ears. The noise the train is making is giving her a headache since she had so much fun last night. As we ride, I try to forget what happened. I've only been scared of Tobias one time since I met him, but then again, it wasn't him that I was afraid of. It was when Jeanine was controlling him. But last night, I was afraid of him. A single punch from him could leave me unconscious, or worse. I'm still not sure what he was aiming for. Was it the wall or had he meant to...

I force the thought from my head. Tobias would never hurt me. Would he? Luckily, that is a question that I don't have to answer right now. I nudge Christina with my elbow and walk towards the door of the train. I lean out a little, the way I've watched Tobias do a hundred times, and all I see are Amity fields. As we get a little closer, I see the little strip of connected buildings that houses their clothing stores. The Amity make all of their clothes by hand, just like Abnegation, but there's a major difference between them: the colors. Amity clothes are red and yellow, with orange mixed in sometimes. They're so carefree; soft flowing fabric that usually shows a lot of skin. It's only after jumping off the train and approaching the stores that I realize just how much everything has changed. Instead of all the stores selling different kinds of Amity clothing, there is now a store that sells clothing from each old faction. When we walk into the store that sells the Amity clothing, we are greeted by a thin young woman with long blond hair and bright green eyes. Her hair is straight and a flower crown sits on top of her head. Based on her body language, it's obvious that she was from Amity at one time.

"Hi, I'm Skye," she says, her hands clasped together in front of her chest and her voice a soft whisper. "Can I assist you with anything?"

"We're just looking around, thank you," I respond politely.

"If you need anything don't hesitate to ask," she says as she floats back to her desk.

"That right there is why I could never be Amity," Christina scoffs.

"Well, first, we're nothing anymore," I point out, "and second, that is exactly why I _didn't_ join Amity."

"I don't know," she sings, "you're the one that wanted to come shopping here."

"Yes, I did. If we aren't going to have factions, then I want to be myself and I want to stand out."

"Beatrice Prior, the Abnegation Stiff wants to stand out?" Chris raises an eyebrow. "Would this have anything to do with Nita?"

"No," I say a little too quickly, and she knows I'm lying.

"Well, then I would suggest we start looking," she says as if I hadn't denied the truth.

When it's all over, we return to the train tracks. Chris is helping me carry the bags that are stuffed with flowing crop tops, shorter than what I usually wear shorts, and a bright yellow sundress that hugs all the right places but still flows elegantly. We help each other jump onto the train and we ride back in silence. Christina's headache isn't as strong by now, but we're both too consumed by our own thoughts to talk.

We take the short walk back to the Dauntless compound, and as we wander the paths inside, we nonchalantly walk past Zeke, Uriah, and Tobias.


End file.
